#Several merch distributers dropping them

[superchat]

Nijisanji goin THRU IT

[chirpsythismorning]

Surfer Boy number update!

Now when you call, the recording comes instantly saying ‘the phone number you just dialed is available. 2499.’ And then cuts off.

Initially, I thought this meant that Netflix just stopped paying to use the number for promotional purposes and so now it’s available for someone to use, and I’m still partially leaning towards that.

However, there are a few things that intrigue me about this.

For one, all the other numbers ST used up to this point remain active, despite them all arguably being well past their need for use.

Murray’s number is still active, despite it being revealed way back in 2019 when s3 premiered and it appeared on the show, with the message still being him on his answering machine, hinting at the s4 plot. And Yuri’s fish fry is also still active, which is another number used for s4 promo sometime in early 2021.

Then there’s the number that appeared in s4 when the Cali gang called Nina, which currently still has the war games sound effect when you call.

The surfer boy number on the otherhand, was revealed in late 2021, which is when the surfer boy van made its first appearance in the Cali teaser that dropped. And for a very short time after that, the message was a birthday jingle, only for it to switch to Argyle explaining the ingredients of pineapple pizza (using colors of the rainbow). And now this.

So apparently it’s important enough to warrant them changing it several times, which in and of itself is a contrast from the others that were revealed and just stayed how they are. Not to mention, the fact that they used it for a birthdaygate Easter egg potentially, reads to me like this number is very much on their radar and it’s unlikely they would just throw it aside.

What confounds me most though about the surfer boy number presumably being dropped for promo while the others weren’t, is that the surfer boy number actually has a lot more longevity to be acknowledged in the narrative, with the van likely making a return in s5.

And not only do we see it repeatedly in s4 whenever the van appears, but the van is also used heavily in merchandise that is still coming out.

So wouldn’t you think out of all the numbers, this is the one they would want to keep active given that fans are still being reminded of it? Wouldn’t it be weird to distribute surfer boy van merch en masse, knowing the number would be called by people curious there’s an Easter egg waiting on the other end of the line? Because that’s generally been the trend up to this point?

Another thing about the message itself, is that I’ve never heard it before in everyday life? Most of the phone messages out there in the states are instantly recognizable to the average person who has spent time on the phone and they all go somewhere along the lines of disclosing that the number is unavailable, even when it’s not in use. The voice here also doesn’t resemble the usual voice you hear whenever you call a number that’s not in use.

It’s honestly also odd to hear a message say that a number is available, because that’s something I’ve personally never encountered. I even tried to look up on it to see if this message is common and maybe I’m just out of the loop, but every search led me to results saying the most common message is to say that a number is unavailable, again even when it is available for use.

And lastly, the most odd part of this new message is the four numbers at the end unprompted.

2499

The only connection I could find to this number is that it appears to be a slight mix up of the last four digits of the surfer boy number.

Original number: 805-45-PIZZA aka 805-457-4992

So is 2499 some sort of acknowledgement of the number itself? And if so, why wouldn’t it just be 4992? Why would it use those same exact numbers, but pull 2 from the end and put it at the front of the other three numbers? And then just end the message there?

It’s so odd to me.

While it could be nothing, I honestly don’t think it makes sense for Netflix to drop the Surfer Boy number altogether, given that they’re making the choice to not drop all the others. They could easily drop the previous ones and save some money if that’s the issue, but apparently it’s worth keeping them. And so why not keep the one that is still likely to be referenced going forward?

Regardless it’s likely that if Netflix still has access to the number, the message is bound to change again. So we’ll have to stay tuned for if and when that happens…

Edit: I FORGOT! There was another message for the Surfer Boy number, which preceded Argyle’s Pineapple pizza message. I only remembered after googling the number’s digits and coming across someone composing it. Still not sure what to make of it. Still so fucking odd…

[music-industry-updates]

Creating a Music Marketing Strategy with Deliver My Tune

Releasing music today requires more than just dropping a track online and hoping for the best. To make an impact and ensure that your audience engages with your music, careful planning is essential. Deliver My Tune offers a variety of tools and services to help artists create a well-structured and strategic music release. In this article, we will delve into the key strategies you should employ when planning your music release with Deliver My Tune. With the right plan in place, your music will not only reach the ears of your listeners but also make a lasting impact.

Start Early: Planning Your Release in Advance

The first step in ensuring a successful music release is to start early. Planning well in advance gives you enough time to refine your strategy, prepare your assets, and engage your audience. Many artists rush the process, which can lead to missed opportunities or an unorganized launch.

A common recommendation is to start planning your release at least three months before your intended release date. This period allows you to focus on several important tasks such as creating promotional materials, preparing your social media content, and scheduling release dates. Deliver My Tune can support you throughout this process by providing distribution services, AI mastering for professional sound quality, and tools to help you promote your music on various platforms.

Setting Clear Goals: Know What You Want to Achieve

Before releasing your music, it’s important to set clear goals. Ask yourself what you want to achieve with your release. Are you trying to grow your fan base? Do you want to boost streams and downloads? Or are you simply aiming to get your music out into the world?

Once you have clear goals in mind, you can tailor your release strategy to meet those goals. Deliver My Tune offers tools such as streaming analytics and distribution reports, which help you monitor how your release is performing. With these insights, you can adjust your strategy to maximize results and align with your objectives.

Building Hype: Engaging with Your Audience Before the Release

One of the most critical steps in releasing music is building anticipation. Your audience needs to know that something exciting is coming, and the best way to do this is by actively engaging with them. Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook offer powerful ways to connect with your fans. With Deliver My Tune’s social media management tools, you can schedule posts, create teasers, and release snippets to generate excitement.

Another effective tactic is to offer exclusive content, such as behind-the-scenes videos, early access to the track, or special edition merch for your most loyal fans. Engaging your audience in this way will build hype and ensure that your release is not only anticipated but also eagerly awaited.

Using Deliver My Tune’s AI Mastering for High-Quality Audio

A critical aspect of releasing music is ensuring that your track sounds as professional as possible. Poor sound quality can turn listeners away, even if the song itself is great. Deliver My Tune’s AI Mastering tool offers artists an easy and affordable way to ensure their track meets industry standards. AI Mastering uses advanced algorithms to automatically adjust levels, EQ, and compression, giving your track the polished sound it needs to stand out in a crowded music landscape.

By utilizing AI mastering, you eliminate the need to spend large amounts of money on professional mastering engineers. The result is a high-quality track that’s ready for distribution across platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music.

Creating a Release Schedule with Deliver My Tune

Timing is everything when it comes to releasing music. A well-planned release schedule helps you stay organized and ensures that your content is released at optimal times. Deliver My Tune’s scheduling tools allow you to plan everything in advance, from the initial announcement to post-release promotion.

When creating your release schedule, start with your announcement date. Give your fans enough time to get excited about the release, but not so much that they lose interest. Then, build in milestones leading up to the release, such as teaser videos, social media countdowns, and pre-save links. Deliver My Tune’s system allows you to release music at your chosen date and time across all major platforms, ensuring that your fans can access your track immediately upon release.

Utilizing Pre-Save Links for Spotify and Apple Music

One of the best tools available to artists today is the pre-save link. Pre-save campaigns allow your fans to save your track before it’s officially released, ensuring it appears in their library on release day. Deliver My Tune provides the option to create pre-save links for platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.

Pre-saves not only help drive streams on the day of the release but also signal to streaming platforms that there is strong interest in your track, increasing the likelihood that it will be added to playlists or featured on the platform. Encourage your fans to pre-save your track by promoting the link across your social media channels.

Collaborating with Influencers and Media Outlets

In today’s music industry, collaboration is key. Reaching out to influencers and media outlets to help promote your release can significantly increase its visibility. Deliver My Tune’s extensive network of partnerships allows you to tap into blogs, radio stations, and social media influencers to spread the word about your music.

Make a list of relevant media outlets, DJs, bloggers, and influencers who align with your music style and target audience. Send them a personalized pitch about your upcoming release, offering exclusive previews or interviews. By securing coverage from reputable sources, you can reach a broader audience and build credibility as an artist.

Conclusion: A Strategic Plan Equals Success

Planning a music release with Deliver My Tune is more than just about uploading your track. It’s about creating a comprehensive strategy that involves goal setting, audience engagement, and utilizing the right tools. By starting early, building hype, ensuring top-quality audio, and collaborating with influencers, your music release can reach new heights of success.

Deliver My Tune’s platform offers everything you need to make sure your release is well-timed, professional, and widely distributed. With the right plan in place, you’ll not only reach your current fans but attract new listeners and make a lasting impression in the music industry.

[hopelesshawks]

Basic Instincts Part 12- Day Off

18+ Hawks x fem!pro hero reader

Summary: Hawks was your first friend, your first kiss, and your first love. You were the same for him. But you’re not little commission trainees anymore, you’re full fledged pro-heroes now with all the baggage and sacrifice that entails. Things are different now, and when the two of you end up accidentally mated, well… they’re about to get even more different.

Masterlist Help Lulu <3

You toss your phone to the side with a sigh, happy to have at least one thing handled. You have faith that Tamaki and Tokoyami will keep your secret at least. The door to your bathroom opens and out emerges Keigo, now clad in sweats and an old shirt he’d had to rip the back out of to accommodate his wings. Steam billows out after him as he finishes drying his hair before having one of his feathers carry the towel back into the bathroom to be left with the rest of your laundry. He flops onto his back on the bed, wings splayed, before shifting to move his head into your lap. Your hand immediately moves to comb through his feathery locks. Funny how some habits never die. “How’re you feeling?” you ask. “Better. Head still hurts but nothing I can’t handle,” he replies, his eyes fluttering shut in contentment as he leans into your touch. “You know this isn’t sustainable right? We won’t be able to hide a mate bond from the commission forever, especially if we have to contend with separation sickness,” you point out. “I know. We’ll have to figure out a way to break the bond,” Keigo agrees. “On top of figuring out what the Liberation Front is up to,” you sigh, biting your lip nervously. “Hey none of that,” he chides as he shifts so his head is no longer in your lap. “C’mere,” he commands, reaching out to you. You roll your eyes but comply easily, allowing him to pull you into his chest. “When’s the last time we had a day off?” he asks. “Never,” you reply. “When’s the next time you were planning to take a day off?” “I’d take a day off if I needed it!” “No, you wouldn’t.” “How do you know?” “Because you’re just like me.”

He’s not wrong.

“Ok what do you suppose we do then?” you ask. “I say we order takeout and have a lazy night in,” he declares. “You know we’re just going to end up working at the end of the night anyway,” you point out, an amused smile slipping onto your face. “Yea probably, but we can at least try to be normal people just this once right?” “Yea... you’re right. Fuck it why not.”

And that’s how you found yourself grabbing as many blankets and pillows as you own and dragging them into the living room. You assign Keigo nest duty, a job he eagerly accepts even if he plays off his excitement. In the mean time you head to the kitchen in search of tea and take out menus. You find a menu for a yakitori place and decide to order from them while you get the hot water going. By the time you return to the living room, two mugs in hand, the couch has been pushed back in favor of a massive puddle of blankets in front of the tv with plenty of pillows distributed throughout. You also realize Keigo had somehow stumbled on your collection of plushies when you notice your cartoon-y stuffed plague doctor and ghosts have been distributed around as well. One plushie is still in his hand though and it makes you stop short.

Keigo is glaring daggers at the Deku plushie in his hand. You’re surprised the damn thing doesn’t combust under the force of his anger. “Why do you have this?” he asks, his hand starting to clench around the poor stuffed doll. “Kei are you.... jealous? Of a doll??” you ask incredulously. “No! I’m just wondering what’s so special about Deku,” he pouts. “Oh my god,” you groan as you move to the center of the nest so you can at least set the mugs down. “What? I can’t help but notice you don’t have plushies of any other pro heroes,” he argues. “Ok first of all,” you sigh, pinching the bridge of your nose, “it’s not even mine. I hold onto it for a friend. And second, if you must know, the only pro hero merch I have is actually a Hawks hoodie.” All traces of his prior jealousy disappear as he looks at you in wonder. “Really?” “Yea, it’s old though, from your first ever merch drop,” you admit, getting slightly self conscious now. He stares at you and you can tell there’s something he wants to ask. As if reading his mind you sigh “you want me to go put it on don’t you?” “Yes very much so please.”

You return in the hoodie made to look like the jacket and shirt of his hero costume, scarlet wings printed on the back to complete the look. “Happy?” you ask and the soft grin he gives you in response makes your heart flip in your chest. “Very. Now come over,” he smiles. You roll your eyes but listen anyway, coming to join him in the little blanket nest and accepting your mug of tea when he offers it. He flips the tv on as you settle against his chest but then a thought occurs to him again. “Wait if the Deku toy isn’t yours, whose is it?” he asks and you groan. “Can we drop it about the stupid plushie?” “No, now I’m curious.” “If I say you’ll be mad....” “No I won’t.” “You will.” “Just tell me!” “It’s Stain’s.”

You can practically hear Keigo’s brain short circuit.

“Did you just say Stain?”

“Yes...”

“As in hero killer Stain?”

“Yes.”

“The one who died after the attack on Hosu City.”

“I don’t know how else to confirm to you that you’re indeed thinking of the right person.”

“I have so many questions,” he sighs. You know you probably shouldn’t but you can’t help but joke “He’s my emotional support villain.” “He murdered several pro heroes in his supposed quest for justice,” Hawks points out. “Yes and I’m not saying that was ok but you have to admit he had a point about the commodification of heroism, although I think the fact the HPSC is run like a Fortune 500 company is more at fault than heroes themselves. He’s interesting to debate with and after meeting Deku and watching Ingenium ‘reform’ himself or whatever, I think Akaguro realized it’s the system he should’ve been targeting and not the people themselves,” you explain. “Oh my god you two are on last name basis?” Hawks asks exasperatedly. “Like I said, emotional support villain. I don’t know I just kinda wish there’d been a way to reform him and turn him into a hero or at least not a villain while he was still alive. You know?” you shrug. Keigo thinks of Twice, of the tutoring sessions he gave him, of his loyalty, and of his final moments. “Yea I know what you mean,” he concedes, pulling you a little bit closer. You can sense the shift in Keigo’s mood immediately so you squeeze his arms where they’re wrapped around you in a show of support. You decide to lighten the mood so you pipe up “You’re not going to ask why Stain has a Deku plushie?”

“Wait, yea what the fuck?”

“I bought it for him for his birthday and called him a fanboy. He stopped talking to me for a week.”

Keigo absolutely fucking cackles at that and it should be the most unattractive thing you’ve ever seen but you love it.

Always have, always will.

A/N: I know Stain didn’t actually die after saving Midoriya in Hosu but also I had forgotten he didn’t die until I looked up his wiki page to get his name and the name of Hosu City and by then I was already too married to the idea to change it lmao. This is a sillier chapter but I felt like it was needed after last chapter was pretty intense

Taglist: @oliviasslut @theycallme-becky @vibesdontlie @superhermit @thechroniclesofawriter

[thiswasinevitableid]

Hi!!!!!!!!!! I just saw your playlist for the indruck rockstar au so naturally I had to go and reread the whole entire thing in one go this morning and I just wanted to say how much I Love it and the way you write that whole scenario, especially with the way you incorporated the music lyrics??? (Especially since you wrote a bunch of those????) chefs kiss. I was wondering if you had ever written or planned out any of the sternclay that happened before this story took place because the way you described what we got of how they got together sounded so amazing and I would Die to hear their point of view. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much! I’m really proud of that fic, and it seems to have been one a lot of folks really enjoyed. And well, when you asked this, it got me thinking. So here’s a brief history of how Stern and Barclay got together in this universe. Heads up: it is NSFW

That didn’t go as planned. 

Joseph only meant to alert The Cryptids to the fact their manager was clearly skimming off the top and downplaying offers for further connections in the business before turning every ounce of charm he could muster on Barclay. He came to fuck bigfoot, not change careers. 

Now he’s packing up the second of his two suitcases, conversation with his parents still ringing in his ears. They’re not taking the fact that he’s dropping out of college to manage an up and coming, horror rock, very gay band particularly well and have tried twice to talk him out of it. Which is why he’s glad he went through all the bureaucratic steps before calling them. 

He’s never been more terrified or excited in his life. He’s sure he can do this, he’s already booked them four more gigs in a logical tour path, found a better system for making their merch, and is tracking down a promising P.R lead. It’s the close quarters that scare him the most; he’s certain he could charm Barclay for an evening, could get the others to like him enough to hang around back stage once or twice. But for months on end? What if they think he’s prissy, or too perfectionistic, or too normal?

What if Barclay hates him?

------------------------------------------------------

“I must admit, I’d have thought you would have made a move on Joseph by now.” Indrid says before pulling a sweater on over his head. It gets caught on his glasses, and he flails until Barclay helps it the rest of the way down. They’re somewhere south of Madison, the van cutting a lonely path down the dark road; it’s so late, and they’re on one of those vast, distinctly midwestern stretches where there’s nothing but night sky and fields. Jake drives, tapping the wheel in time with the radio while Joseph sleeps in the passenger seat and Vincent sprawls on the far back one.

“Kinda weird to hit on your manager, right?” Barclay peers warily around the passenger seat to be double sure the manager in question isn’t listening. He isn’t, lips parted slightly and dark hair falling in his face as his sleeping body is tilted this way and that by the motion of the car. 

“Not when the manager looks like that and has already broadcasted his eagerness to fuck you.”

Barclay can’t really argue that first point; Joseph walked into that sorry excuse for a dressing room looking like centerfold come to life. There’s a certain kind of fan of theirs who spends their daily life buttoned up and following the rules, and Joseph struck him as exactly that kind of self-repressing, well groomed gym bunny. They’re always the most fun fans to fuck, in his experience. Couple that with the fact Joseph was (is) hot and willing, Barclay would have happily called dibs on the van for an hour to fuck him senseless that first night. But now…

“I dunno, he hasn’t really flirted with me since we met. And even then he didn’t flirt much.”

“The lecture on Haye’s deficits did start about two seconds after he entered the room.”

“Yeah” Barclay sighs fondly at the memory, “maybe he’s just not interested now that he’s seen me offstage.”

“Or maybe you’re both acting from the same vein of professionalism. Which is not terribly punk rock.”

“I’m being myself” Barclay grumbles “that’s-”

“The most punk rock thing you can be.” Indrid finishes, nodding sagely. Then he smirks, “but that doesn’t change the fact Joseph wants to get into those leather pants of yours. Why do you think he keeps recommending the stage outfits that involve them?”

“Hey, I like that look too. It’s my idea as much as it’s his.”

“Mmmmhmm.” Indrid yawns, rests his head on Barclay’s shoulder.  Then he sings in his ear “Baby you got the clothes, baby he’s got the romance, you’ve got the moves so while you’ve got the chance, you wanna get in his pants, you wanna get in his pants, you wanna-”

Barclay elbows him sideways onto the seat, making them both giggle like they’re ten and wrestling on the trampoline in his backyard. 

“Enough with the prophecies, Mothman.”

“That was hardly a prophecy.” Indrid sticks his legs into Barclays laugh, “but very well. I will leave you to pine for as long as you please.”

Barclay spares another glance towards the front of the car.

“I’m not pining. I just want him to like me.”

A snore in reply, Indrid out with his arms sprawled in different directions. Barclay chuckles softly, roots around for one of their two pillows, and settles his head against the window. He doesn’t shut his eyes right away; instead he watches the lights of distant houses and stars race past, melding into the reflection of Joseph’s sleeping face.

------------------------------------

“I bought us ten more minutes, I cannot believe they didn’t warn us this was a double appearance. I’ll-” Joseph finishes shutting the van door and promptly grips it so hard it leaves an indent in his palm. 

The band is in various states of rapid undress, trying to get back into their first set of outfits, and smack in the center of the tableau is Barclay, naked from the waist down.

“-I’ll be more thorough going, um, going forward. See you all backstage.” 

He can’t scramble out of the vehicle fast enough, finds one of the two functioning bathrooms in the place and locks himself in without a second thought. Leans against the graffiti coated door and shoves his hand down pants, a little embarrassed at how turned on he is just from one peek at Barclay’s dick. That doesn’t stop him from picturing it as he shoves two fingers into himself and jacks off like it’s the last chance he’ll ever get. The smell of two kinds of smoke, the half dead bulb, the din of the crowd gathering in the building all make him harder; he’s so desperately horny for his bassist he’ll make himself cum in a shitty dive bathroom. The thought has him moaning, and he covers his mouth with his free hand as he cums. 

With a much clearer head, he washes his hands and leaves to round up his band. It’s better this way, better for him to get off alone than put Barclay in a weird position by his manager coming onto him. That’d be weird for everyone; this way is much easier.

Ten minutes later, standing in the shadowy steps and watching The Cryptids perform, Barclay growling and sweat-soaked, giving Indrid a messy, open-mouthed kiss when the singer initiates it, he knows it won’t be easy at all.

---------------------------------------------------------

They’ve done it; Joseph helped the others successfully sign with Amnesty Records, securing them a re-release of their first album at higher quality and with wider distribution, a massive U.S tour, and more money up front than any of them have ever seen. Amnesty sees promise in them, and Barclay knows they can deliver. They celebrated for two nights solid, and now reality sets in; Indrid is locked in a hotel room, writing like he’s possessed by the ghost of several rockstars at once, Vincent and Jake are trying to find places to live now that they’re based in Atlanta, and Barclay…

Barclay is standing in a half-furnished apartment that doesn’t belong to him. It belongs to Joseph, currently hopping on and off the phone while Barclay waits for dinner to arrive. In a perfect world he would have just cooked, but given how Joseph’s been the last few weeks, he’s worried that gesture of intimacy might freak him out. The manager was in meetings all day and is still in his suit, a forty dollar one they bought in a strip mall at the edge of town. On him it looks like it cost a thousand dollars just for the slacks. The slacks Barclay is failing very hard at not staring at. Joseph isn’t even twenty-one, but he’s been working deals like a pro, and it is the hottest fucking thing Barclay has ever seen. 

He tries distracting himself from his unhelpful gay thoughts via distressing images. All he comes up with is having to steal Indrid’s phone from him after the singer called his family for the first time in almost three years. Whether that was to deliver a final fuck you or toss a hail Mary of reconciliation their way, Barclay isn’t sure. All he knows is he watched Indrid’s face take a turn, old hurts smothering the spark in his eyes, and he took the phone away while someone yelled on the other end of it. 

“How are your parents taking it?” Joseph looks up from the laptop on the kitchen table where he’s entering dates into a calendar. 

Barclay smiles, “Good. Pretty sure they’ve told everyone in the family the good news. Alice can get a chain email out like nobody’s business. They say they love me and are proud of me and that I have to promise to still come home for Christmas every now and then.”

Joseph smiles back, open for a moment before a guard slips back up. Barclay tucks his hands in his pockets, psyching himself up. He has to do this. He has to know.

“Have I, like, made you angry or something? You’ve just been standoffish lately.” 

“Working out everything for the contract has been so stressful I’m not sure anyone but the execs have seen much of me.” The answer is well-rehearsed. 

“Oh.” Barclay nods, hands still in his pockets and shoulders slouched. 

“And, um, and they haven’t gone away. My feelings for you.” This answer is far quieter, the other man looking up from the screen with fearful eyes. 

“That’s a...bad thing? But I, uh, I, like you too. I like so fucking much.”

A little puff of laughter, “I can tell. Believe me, I can. It’s just that being your manager is different than being a random fan looking for a hook-up; I might  want something you’re not ready to give, or vice versa, and if we rush into things it could fuck up everything you guys worked for. Everything we worked for.”

Barclay cautiously steps forward, “What if we took things slow? Like, really slow.”

Hope sneaks into the corners of Joseph’s eyes, “What would that look like?”

“Like we go step by step, with first dates and like, hand holding and shit. We can take as long as we want; I mean, unless you’re planning on ditching the next big thing in the music world, think we’re gonna have plenty of time to spend together.”

“I like the sound of that.” 

Barclay circles the table as Joseph stands. He cups his cheek, running his thumb up his cheekbone.

“Hey.”

“Hi” Joseph’s eyes have taken on a distinctly Bambi-ish shape. 

“You wanna go get dinner tomorrow?”

The other man loops his arms around his shoulders, “Absolutely.”

Their first kiss comes less than twenty four hours; they may be taking it slow, but there’s only so much two men who’ve been pining in the confines of a van for months can take. It’s soft and popcorn scented and Joseph holds his hand the entire time. 

---------------------------------------------

Joseph waits in the dressing room, ears ringing from the sound system and the screaming crowd. It’s the first time The Cryptids have played any sort of true arena, and they sold out the show a week in advance. 

Barclay clomps into the room in his combat boots, grinning as soon as he sees him. He’s dripping with sweat, his eyeliner is a little smudged, and even though he isn’t the lead vocalist, he has enough backing vocals that his voice is a touch raw when he speaks. 

“Fuck that was fun.”

“You all did so well. I, this is going to sound corny, but I’m so proud of you.”

“Should be proud of yourself too, babe. Without you, we’d probably still be playing no-name bars in Des Moines or Fresno.”

“Managing is easy when the talent’s this good.” He runs his hands up Barclays’ fishnet-clad chest. 

“Take the compliment, blue eyes.”

High on pride and the knowledge that at least a third of the crowd would commit a felony to take his place, Joseph pinches Barclay’s left nipple, “No.”

Barclay growls, grabbing his lapels and yanking him into a salty, toothy kiss. He moans in reply, drops his hands down to undo Barclay’s fly so he can grind against him, feel him getting hard through his dress pants. 

“You really wanna do that here, babe? Don’t wanna make our first time all soft sheets and candlelight?” Barclay rubs the top button of Joseph’s shirt between his thumb and finger. 

“Yes, I want you and I want you now” 

Barclay lunges, shoving him back until his ass hits the dressing room table.

“Fine” he grunts, getting his cock out while Joseph kicks one leg free of his pants, “can’t take a compliment, gonna take something else.”

“OHmylord, fuck, fucking finally.” He thunks his head back against the mirror as Barclay sets a ferocious tempo. 

“Shit, you feel even better than I thought you would, and I’ve been, fuck, thinking about it for a long fucking time. Ever since you walked into that shitty dressing room in those tight shorts and shirt with my name on it.”

“Nnhng” He spreads his legs wider at the memory.

“Oh you fucking like that, don’t you babe? That why you wanted to do this here? So I could treat you like the horny fucking fanboy you really are?”

“Yes, ohmylord, yes, yes.” He can’t feel anything but the points where they connect, can’t hear anything beyond Barclay’s growls in his ear and the slap of skin on skin.

“Fuck” Barclay pulls his hair with one hand, shoves his knee further up with the other, “shoulda known, even with that fancy suit all you wanna be is my fucking toy.” It’s a snarl, the hottest sound he’s ever heard and he drags Barclay into another kiss, amazed that he feels close to cumming already. 

Knockknock.

Barclay turns his head towards the door, Joseph muffling his panting breath in his shoulder. 

“Uh, who is it?”

“Mothman. The winners of that drawing are back here to meet us.”

“Shit” Joseph hisses, starting to sit up only for strong hands to trap him in place. 

“Cool. Uh, gimme like” Barclay looks down to where his cock is buried into Joseph, “three minutes?”

The smile in Indrid’s voice is unmistakable, “Of course. I still need to find Vincent. See you soon.”

“Three minutes seems optimisticAH, ohgod” He holds on for dear life as Barclay fucks him with sharp, deep thrusts. A calloused hand finds his dick and Joseph bites down on a broad shoulder to keep from alerting everyone in the vicinity to his impending orgasm. 

“That’s it babe, cum for me, cum on my cock in a backroom like the horny, needy thing you are.” Barclay stills his hips, hand working with slick, messy movements until Joseph cums. He doesn’t wait for him to finish all the way before slamming into him for ten of the best seconds of Stern’s life and cumming with a deep moan. 

“Fucking-A that was good.”

“Good is an understatement.”

“I love you so fucking much.”

“I love you too.”

A kiss on the head as Barclay helps him onto the ground, a flurry of putting their clothes into a rough approximation of order. Then Barclay kisses him again as Joseph strokes his hair. 

“Offer of soft sheets and candlelight still stands.” 

Joseph holds him tighter, smiling against his neck, “I guess we know what we’re doing tomorrow night.”

----------------------------------------------------

It’s the last day of recording the tracks for “Blood on the Mirror” and the mood is bittersweet. After this, there’s one more tour and then The Cryptids go their separate ways. It was time, everyone but Indrid and Jake ready to move on to other projects, and Joseph is already on board to manage Indrid’s solo career (“I’d trust it to no one else, Joseph. I mean it”). All the same, when the final track is deemed done, everyone applauds and embraces like they’re going off to war. 

He heads down to his office to finish reading over venue contracts while the band packs up, but he only gets through one before Barclay appears. 

“Hey, blue eyes.”

“Hi, Bigfoot.” Joseph stands and comes to the door to kiss him, “are you already set to go home.”

“More or less” Barclay rubs his arm, his most consistent anxiety tell, “uh, there’s just one thing I gotta ask before we leave.”

Hushed voices down the hall, but no one there when Joseph looks behind him to check. When he turns back, his hands fly up to cover his mouth. Barclay is down on one knee.

“I, uh, I know this might not be the most, uh, traditional spot to do this but it feels right. I’ve just been thinking about how a huge chapter of my life is coming to a close and there’s this whole new, exciting, terrifying blank page where I have to write the next one. And I, I realized that I want you to be in that chapter with me, and the next one, and the one after that. So, uh, what I want to know is: Joseph Stern, will you marry me?”

He nods, not trusting his voice to come out with intelligible words. 

“Oh thank god.” Barclay springs up, cupping his face and spinning him in a kiss. Joseph laughs as whooping cheers echo towards them. Indrid, Jake, and Vincent, are peering around the nearest corner, beaming.

“Indrid is for sure going to say I told you so the second he gets me alone” Barclay chuckles, “I was so afraid you’d say no because things will be kind of up in the air for the next few years.”

Joseph turns his face back towards him, “You’re right, they will. But I can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend them with.”

[kewltie]

“Papa, we need to talk,” Kasumi says, strolling into the living room with a thick binder tucked against her chest.

“Yes?” Papa stops folding their laundry and turns to her, adopting a serious expression on his face. “Unicorn’s vomit?”  

Kasumi nods her head. Unicorn’s vomit is their secret code for dire, serious business that requires their full attention. “It’s about your marriage,” she answers gravely.

Papa blinks. "Say that again?"

"Marry," she says, enunciating the word carefully. "It's about time for you to get marry, so I brought some options for you to choose from."

"Kasumi-chan, I thought we’d talked about this." Papa frowns, looking concern. "I'm happy with just us two. I'm not looking for another person to add into our family."

Kasumi sighs, because they did but Papa fought it off every time like it's her happiness is on the line here and not his. She got this though. Didn't spend an hour rehearsing her argument to not win.

“Papa," she starts, "I’m getting older now and one day I won’t be able to take care of you anymore—“

“You’re ten,” Papa cuts in.

Kasumi scowls. “That’s not the point though! I’m just saying I can’t always be with you and I don’t want you to feel lonely when I’m not there.”

“I won’t be alone,” Papa points out. “I have your grandmother with me.”

“Who will die before you,” she counters viciously. And then, she sends a silence apology to grandmother for using her against Papa. “And where will that leave you?”

Papa winces. “Can we please not speak of death so early in the morning?”

Kasumi’s lips thin in displeasure, but she lets her shoulders hunched over, making herself smaller as she says, “I just want you to be happy and surrounded by someone who can love you even when I’m not there.”

Papa's eyes soften at her words.

Jackpot. Now going in for the kill, Kasumi looks away for a second and drops her voice to a slight tremor like she can barely contain her emotion. "A—and I always wanted to know what it's like to have another parent like all the other kids."

"Oh, Kasumi-chan," Papa breaths, and there's a slight wet sheen to his eyes. He catches her free hand in his and squeezes it comfortingly. His lips wobble precariously but he holds firm enough to says, "Okay, I understand."

Kasumi tries not to smile but it's near thing.

It's a silence and unacknowledged victory, but she'll take it. "Perfect," she declares, pulling away from Papa enough to show him her portfolio. "This," she points toward her binder, "is 'Operation: Get Papa a Rich Handsome Alpha Husband' or as I call it 'Get rich or Die Trying'."

"That's—" Papa frowns, making a face before finally settling on, "a cute name."

Kasumi puffs up her chest proudly. It took her some time to come up with it. "Isn't it?" She opens the binder and steers Papa's eyes to the first page. "Now, I'd carefully handpicked and narrowed down a handful of viable candidates so far for you. I'd chosen only the best of the bests for you, Papa!" She flips to the next page where several categories are listed out. "I placed each candidate in order by how they fair in the ratings in the criteria I found them in."

Papa cocks his head thoughtfully. "Such as?"

"Well, wealth for one, then looks, family oriented, reputation, employment," she starts, listing them off one by one, "character, likeability, past relationship, education, health, and feelings toward the quirkless."

Papa's eyes twitches. "That's very thorough, Kasumi-chan."

"I did my homework." She preens. It took her several months to gather all the necessary information needed for her data sheets, but she'd pulled through. The fact that a lot of things can be found on the internet had helped a lot, but it was a long and arduous work. Anything for her Papa, indeed.

"Thank you for the hard work." Papa's eyes crinkle and he smiles softly at her. "You're amazing as always, Kasumi-chan." And it's this kind of thing that make Kasumi's heart soar because only Papa, her dearest Papa, make her feels so elated that he wants to launch herself into his lap and scream in joy. She’d known that she’s strong and mighty only because she got Papa to support her up.

At the end of the day, Kasumi is really no good without her Papa.

So, right, she got a mission to complete. "Of course." She clears her throat. Turning several pages forward, she lands on a spread with a picture glued to a corner, several graphs, and blocks of text all over it. "Now, the no. 1 candidate so far at a 7.2 rating is Hirota Ryuu—"

"Our family doctor?" Papa's brows furrow. "And your highest is a 7.2 out of what, a ten?"

"Yes, Hirota-sensei! And there's always room for improvement." She huffs. "Not everyone can be as perfect as you and me, Papa."

Papa stifles a laugh into his hand. "Okay, go on."

"Alright," she says, straightening her back. "For one thing: he's handsome enough that you won't get bored looking at his face, he's a doctor so he must make enough money to spoil you, and he's nice. All the kids and parents I'd interviewed like him a lot. And so do you." Kasumi eyes Papa pointedly and Papa blushes. “He’s blond. Just your type, Papa.”

"Well, he is handsome," he admits wistfully. “And I do like blond hair.”

"Good," she nods her head, pleased with herself, "because I gave him bonus point for that. Anyone that you attracted to get extra points for making you happy,” she says, touching a careless hand to a stray blond hair of her own. Papa really does like blond hair.  

Papa's lips wobble again and he reaches out for a hug but she steps out of the way, shaking her head. "Nope, not until I'm done then you can give me all the snuggles and kisses you want," she says, like it's a heavy burden to be basked in Papa's loving attention and care.

Papa's face fall as he sits back down, but he holds himself still and rapt in attention before her again. "Okay, so," she plows on, "Hirota-sensei scores pretty good all across the board, but the only reason his score is that low is the fact he's a serial dater." She makes a face."I can't have Papa competing with others for sensei's attention when it's the other way around. Your partner should always put your first and foremost!"

"Right," Papa agrees in amusement, which made Kasumi's narrow her eyes slightly because this is serious business.

It's Papa's happiness on the line here, so she's not playing around. "Alright, so next we have as candidate no. 2 is," she says, flipping several pages ahead, "Todoroki Shouto or as he is known to the public Hero Synergy. He's a 7.0 and a pretty good catch overall. I think he’s good secondary choice."

Papa perks up at that.

"You love heroes and he's from a family of them so that gave Todoroki-san a huge advantage over the other competitors,” she continues. “And if you look at his income bracket—”

Papa grimaces. “Kasumi-chan, is that category really necessary? Isn’t just enough if I like him at all?”

Kasumi gives him a look. "Papa, I may be young but I'm no fool," she says, rolling her eyes. "Love alone is not going keep a roof over our head and put food on our table. Here," she points toward a number distribution chart, "this is the average annual income for a top ranking hero. Since his father was a former no. 1 and he also got a good reputation with the public, Todoroki-san has a good amount of sponsors and contracts. That’s mean he’s loaded, Papa,” she says the last sentence carefully in case Papa hadn’t pick up the clue yet.

Papa heaves an amused sigh and nods. “Alright, he’s rich got it.”

“Now, his only downsize," Kasumi grimaces, "is that he got the personality of a brick wall."

Papa chokes out a laugh. "You shouldn't say something like that, Kasumi-chan!"

"Well," she starts, looking heavenward in annoyance, "he is a little dull. His interviews all come off as tedious as watching paint dry and I nearly fell asleep a minute in watching them. His beautiful face can only get him so far. A handsome partner is fine but if their personality is nothing but a stale bread then you'll only get bored later. Emi-chan told me that a relationship need some spice in it to spark passion," she explains. Emi is only a months older than her, but she held hand with a boy before so she knows what she's saying.

Papa reels back, flushing. "You're too young to have that kind of conversation with your friends."

"Okay," she lies effortlessly, like the lying liar that she is. "So moving on to no. 3 now." She turns the page once more, but this time reluctantly as she lands on the next one.

"He's—" she pulls a face, "not my prefer choice but, here is Bakugou Katsuki or Hero Ground Zero as you may know him with a 6.9 rating."

Papa immediately stiffens at that name and eyes zeroes in on Bakugou's page right away. No surprise there.

Growing up, how can she not noticed that Bakugou have always been a trigger for Papa. "I don't like him," she states flatly with narrowed eyes. "Sure he's handsome, powerful, and is the no.1 hero in Japan but he's also rude, belligerent, and annoying." She can tick off all his flaws all day, she isn’t going to waste her breath on him. "There are other candidates fairing much better than him all other categories. He's only rated so high," she eyes Papa meaningfully, "because you like-like him so much."

Papa stutters. "W-what?!”

"I know about the photos of Zero you've collected and hidden under the bed! You don't have to lie to me, Papa," she says, smiling sharply. "I know of your crush on him. You watched his entire interviews and bought all his merchs like you don't know I wasn't going to find it eventually. I even think he’s the reason you have such a blond fetish."

“Don’t say fetish. Who even taught you that word?” Papa drops his face into his hand and groans. "Mercy. Mercy, please, Kasumi-chan. Let me live.”

“I just pity any offspring produce from his DNA,” she grumbles. “They’re probably as terrible as him.”

Papa lifts his head and breathes, “Oh, Kasumi-chan, you’re going to regret those words so much.”

[antigravity-zine]

Guide to Applying for Zines and Building your Portfolio - Antigravity Zine edition

Hello everyone! As applications are opening next week, the Antigravity Mod Team decided to write a post about how to build your portfolio and apply to zines, so you guys are ready to apply for ours. We’ve all wondered at some point what we should do to make our application stand out, so here we’re going to explain some tricks and rules you should follow, should you want to apply.

I’ve already written some examples of how to apply here, and here (I love rambling about zines), but I figured I could put them together for you all! And remember, most of these guidelines are suggestions, though, so don’t be afraid if you skipped some!

Now, let’s focus on applications!

Before applying

Read the FAQ and guidelines carefully

The FAQ is the heart of the zine. It usually displays the theme of the zine, the number of participants they’re going to accept and, in case you’re a writer, the maximum word count. This will give you an overall view of what apps will be looking for.

In our case, the Antigravity Zine focuses on Uraraka Ochako. The zine will be divided in past, present, and future, and artists and writers will be distributed in each category depending on what they wish to work in.

Compare the zine’s schedule with yours

Make sure that, in case you’re selected to be part of the team, that you’ll be able to keep up with the schedule. It’s okay if you suddenly get busy in the middle of the event (life happens), but for the mod’s sake, please be mindful of your own availability.

Applying

Answer all the questions as clearly as possible

Zines usually have some general questions on the first page of applications; these questions are important in order to get in touch with you guys. Then, there will be questions related to your application, and the answer to those will be what will help mods decide who to choose.

Make sure you read all questions (and possible explanations underneath) carefully before submitting your app. Don’t worry if you have to take a while (even days) to write a proper answer, or if you need to ask the mod team about clarifications for some questions – Mods will gladly answer any doubt you might have.

Portfolio

Now it comes one of the most difficult parts of the zine: selecting your samples and building up your portfolio.

Portfolios are vastly different between artist and writer applicants. Ideally, a portfolio would be built up for each application, but we’re not going to ask this for you, not at all! However, there are some certain rules that will make your portfolio look good.

Artists

An artist’s portfolio should be a google drive folder or a similar webpage that has at least 7+ works that demonstrate the full range of your skills. Drop as many different styles as you want, but make sure your pieces are all finished. A portfolio full of sketches isn’t professional, and it won’t show your capabilities at all.

Some additional tips that your portfolio should follow:

–  Some of your pieces should have backgrounds. Zines usually ask for full pieces with backgrounds, so you should show the mods that you’re capable of drawing them.

–  Most of the works should be fully coloured.

–  Include different subjects and styles, and different poses

–  In case you’re applying to be a Merch Artist, include 1+ works with merch designs.

Of course, you can use your art tag as a portfolio, but remember that you won’t be showing your best work like this, and the mods will have to dig within the tag to catch a glimpse of your work (which frankly takes a lot of time and sometimes it’s fruitless).

So our recommendation is that you take some time building up a good portfolio!

Writers

In case of writers apps for zines, portfolio rules are a bit laxer. Usually, an AO3 link or similar is fine, but if you really want to show only your best works, there are some considerations you can follow:

–   5+ works showing what you consider Zine-quality skills. These can include the samples you’re using to apply.

–   The pieces you include should have a defined start and end, and a good development in-between. Excerpts are allowed as they follow these rules and you leave a link to the complete piece.

–   Include a variety of subjects and genres, and a variety of writing styles (f. e., a more lyrical tone for drama, a more comical tone for rom-coms). Make sure you include a variety of types of narration (dialogue-heavy scenes vs. scenery building, action scenes, etc.)

–  Make sure that all the pieces have been edited for grammar and spelling.

Samples

Zines normally ask for an X number of samples following certain rules. These will help the mods judge the style you’re applying with to the zine, and if you’re able to meet all requirements/rules of the zine pieces. Make sure you read the requirements and follow them; Mods will be less willing to give you a high score if your sample word count goes 1k over the word count, you know?

In Antigravity Zine, we will be asking for three samples from artist and writers. For artists, it is suggested that at least one piece has a background. For writers, we ask that no piece goes over 2.5k (excerpts are allowed). For merch artists, we recommend that at least one piece is a merch design.

A very important note! To all artists who also apply as a merch artist, please don’t apply with the same samples you used for your artist application. It shows a lack of care and it might hinder the mods’ opinion on you.

As for general requirements, we ask that at least one piece is set in the BNHA universe. A piece showing Ochako is preferrable, but it’s not obligatory.

Make sure your work is easily accessible

Make sure the mods will have no issues viewing your samples when they start reviewing them. Your samples shouldn’t:

–   Be restricted only to your followers (in case you’re linking posted works). Make sure you check your account’s privacy settings before submitting.

–   In case you’re using a google drive link, make sure the link allows people to view the piece. In case you don’t know how to get a link to share, there are really easy guidelines out there.

–   Make sure the link is still active until the end of the applications period. Please, don’t move your works to the trash before apps results are sent, at least.

–   Make sure you’re sending the correct link. Don’t link works you didn’t mean to link.

(Sadly, we have encountered all these in other applications)

Remember: Mods can’t give you a score if they can’t see your work.

Does your application fit the theme?

Now, this is not a requirement (at least not for this zine), but it is always good to select samples that are relatively related to the zine’s theme.

Think of it as a job application; you wouldn’t apply to a work related to philology with a physics doctorate, would you? Well, the same goes with zines. Use optimistic pieces to apply to optimistic zines (rom-coms, family zines, platonic relationships, etc), and dramatic pieces to apply to more angst-themed ones (tragedy, drama, horror, etc.).

Keep it SFW if it’s a SFW zine, and add NSFW pieces for your NSFW zines.

As for Antigravity zine, we don’t have strict themes required for samples, and the mod team has decided that NSFW won’t be allowed, as some mods of the team aren’t comfortable with those.

Pitches

The weight of pitches in zines is different in each case. Some ask for 1/several pitches that determine what you’re going to create for the zine, while in other cases, the pitches are only orientative and let the mods see your ideas. In case you’re applying to a zine that follows the first case, you will need to sit down and think of your idea carefully, as it’ll affect your application.

In Antigravity zine’s case, pitches will be orientative, and will not affect your chances to get into the zine.

After applying

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with the mod team if you need to change your app

Sometimes we are too eager to apply and make mistakes, or we finish a piece after applying that we consider it’s better than the ones we used to apply.

In this case, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the mod team and ask if you can change your application. More times than not, the mod team will be happy to change whatever needs to be changed, and they will evaluate the new pieces accordingly.

Remember, though, that you need to ask for changes before the applications period ends!

Don’t be discouraged if you get rejected

More times than not, zines get too many applications and have very limited contributors spots, more so if that zine is physical. Mods see themselves in a situation where they have to choose between several really good applications and discuss for hours to see who they accept and who they reject.

Usually, they are forced to choose between people who have the exact same score.

Being rejected doesn’t mean you’re bad; sometimes, someone else’s application fits the theme better, they explained themselves better, or they were just very lucky and were chosen over you. So, please, don’t let a rejection email let you down and keep trying!

Most of the people who have participated in a zine sometime have been rejected heaps of time before. I have been rejected dozens of times before (at this point it’s part of the zine experience). However, if you keep working hard and learn from your mistakes, it’s only a matter of time until you get into one yourself.

You won’t get in if you don’t try.

–

And this is more or less what you should know before applying to zines! If you guys have any questions, please don’t hesitate to hit our ask box, and we will get back to you shortly!

And remember, applications open on June 1st!

Lots of love,

Mod Lie & The Antigravity Mod Team

Schedule    |    FAQ    |     Ask    |    Twitter

[tiscomics]

How to Survive Black Friday: A Retailer's War Plan

My name is Devin Thomas, Store Manager of HaulMart in Newport, Oregon. In 2017 we lost 3 employees to the Day. I have prepared a war plan for the 2018 battle. I share it here with you so that you may order your ranks and brandish your store’s defenses appropriately. There are consequences to neglecting to prepare for Black Friday, so let this serve as a blueprint for how to survive it.

I dedicate this plan of action to the 2017 fallen, taken by Black Friday Shopping hordes despite our mighty garrison and armament:

Robert in home appliances, God rest his soul

Marty in kitchen supplies, God rest his soul

Jenny at checkout, God rest her soul.

The New War Plan follows.

Plan for surviving Black Friday

1) Armor: Prepping the soldiery

This is war. Your army is only as strong as your soldier employees, and armor can go a long way in preparing them for battle.

Head: Construction helmets are O-K, but ideal head protection is a hockey helmet (with grill) and accompanying neck guard. Goggles beneath this as well as a 3M facepiece respirator to guard against Shopper mania contamination is recommended.

Torso: Your store’s sports section should have sufficient football shoulder pads.

Legs: Hockey goalie pads for employees on the ground. Carhartt over soccer shin guards for the spotters.

Feet: Steel-toed boots should be sufficient for most employees, offering a balance between speed and protection. For stationary positions, make them tanks by donning ski boots.

Hands: Dexterity will be crucial for communication, so wear work gloves from the home improvement section.

2) Front door: First line of defense

The front door is a critical choke point. Tragically, it must be opened to get business.

Garrison: Position the burliest employees at this point. Our gardening department was ill-equipped to the task in 2017, and several remain in comas to this day.

Rampart: Replace motion-activated doors with inward-swinging ones. This will allow the pushing weight of the Shopper mass to immediately enter the store  once unlocked. It is crucial to let the flow of Shoppers in at once so as not to cause a stampede that only infuriates the Shopper.  Avoid use of revolving doors at all cost–remember the lessons of “Guillotine” Galveston Target, 2013.

Drawbridge: Ensure employees manning this position train for quick-release and retreat of the locking mechanism. We estimate half a second between lock drop and suffocation by trampling. If this threshold cannot be trained for, construct the Gorilla tape and cable unlocking system (Appendix A.)

3) Aisle funnel: Control the heave

Surviving Black Friday is a matter of directing the flow of the Shopper mass such that build-ups do not result in employee casualties.

Formation: The aisles must be positioned in rank and file perpendicular to the entrance wall. The Shopper mass must be sliced like a paper shredder to file neatly down an aisle nearest them after fanning out from the entry. This must occur before they have time to consider a change in direction.

Garrison: At the head of each aisle place an employee–these should be the tallest and have the throatiest, loudest voices. They will divide the flow down flanking aisles. Do not use megaphones–your soldiers need both arms to stem the onslaught, and they should be harnessed to the aisle scaffold so as not to be swept into the flow.

Signage: Black Friday deals should be anticipated and then clearly marked in order to confuse the flow into breaking up evenly into the aisles. Do not place all the most desired products in the same aisle as employees will surely die (distribute electronics products to multiple aisles).

4) Eyes in the sky: Black Friday communication

Communication. That is how your employees will get out of Black Friday alive. Communicate using 2-way radios with Bluetooth earbuds so that those on the ground will not have cords yanked from their ears and rendered blind among the heave.

Battlements: Surveillance cameras are not enough. Construct ramparts atop the ends of the aisles. We recommend curtain walls of Pampers. This birds-eye view of the battle below will allow spotters to communicate pressure points that need immediate alleviation.

Garrison: Employees who weigh least should man these positions to lessen the chance of shelving collapse (wrapping department usually has small folk). In case the Shopper mass topples aisles, the smaller the employees up top the lighter their fall.

Order of battle: Spotters will communicate to runners on the ground who battle the currents to reach those pressure points, solve disputes if possible or put down aggressors using plungers laced with chloroform.

5) Armament: Distraction techniques

The Shopper mass will attack both itself and your employees. Shopper mania is contagious and will likely escalate in intensity for all the herd by measure of the single most psychopathic Shopper among them.

Relief: All employees should be equipped with marbles. In a crunch, marbles will clear a path for the employee to escape over the slipped Shoppers.

Suppression: Eyes in the sky will be equipped with sport rifles loaded with tranquilizer darts. They will fire these on the Alpha Psychos to control levels of rage.

Hail-Mary: Readily-accessible fire alarms should be available should an employee be near death. If these cannot be installed, fire extinguishers should be made available to smote the excitable mass into retreat.

6) Checkout: Check the rout

Retailers are in this for the money. Surviving Black Friday should not take precedent over making money. Even a Shopper retreat cannot be allowed to result in stolen merchandise. Unfortunately, many employee deaths occur at this stage in Black Friday battles.

Garrison: On Black Friday, the same burly fellows who open the gates should man the checkout along with a double team of employees armed with card readers.

Battlement: Turn off the conveyor belt and instead mount kitchen stools on Lazy Susan’s here. This will give a wide field of view. Just below and behind this the double team should squat with card readers at the ready.

Weapons: Potato guns can be easily constructed with parts from your store’s plumbing section. Load up on cheap russet potatoes. This will be the last defense against fleeing shoplifters. Shoot the merch from Shoppers arms if they have not paid. Say the Lord’s Prayer before the battle begins as statistically speaking at least one of your burly defenders will perish.

7) Rear action: Last resort

It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the entire workforce gets cornered in the back of the store by a resolute and cohesive mob. It is rare, but it can happen, especially if your store’s Black Friday deals built an expectation of promised products that quickly sold out.

Garrison: If this part of the Black Friday survival guide war plan is relevant to you, then half of your ranks have fallen.

Fortification: The “Authorized Personnel Only” sign will only hold back the Shopper mass for a few minutes at this stage. Ensure that sufficient material is available in the back to bar the door (we recommend using chains and padlocks, and electrifying the door’s access with a power generator.)

De-escalation: To avoid repetition of Black Friday fails like the Fried Flagstaff K-Mart Employees of 2015, ensure that all combustible products were removed from the shelves before the Day. At this point, offer a further % off to all Shoppers. If this fails, offer free everything in exchange for your lives. If this is rejected, say the Lord’s Prayer rocking back and forth, or if you are atheist, just rock back and forth.

Preparing for next year’s Black Friday

This guide should be a pragmatic resource for retailers on how to survive Black Friday Shopper mayhem. Each year brings a new dynamic, and it is important to adapt to new challenges. Last year it was Bluetooth speakers. This year… curved TVs. May God have mercy on our souls.

Source: https://is.gd/BDD0lU

[des-shinta]

Access Flash!  On Gridman and it’s new anime.

  So Tsuburaya Productions recently branched out into the realm of anime with this collaboration with Studio Trigger.  And for those who haven’t been following, it’s with a series you 90′s kids might recognize.

The name Tsuburaya should need no introduction if you’re in the Tokusatsu or giant monster(Kaiju) Fandoms, but for those unfamiliar; Eiji Tsuburaya is the special effects wizard responsible for all the effects in the original Godzilla.  A Life-long fan of scale models and recreating the world in realistic miniature, he is in many respects considered the Japanese Counterpart of Legendary filmmaker Ray Harryhausen.  In example of his amazing talent and attention to detail, he was consigned during world war Two to make propaganda films of the Japanese military winning in engagements across the pacific and the productions for the time were paid so much attention to detail that no-one at the time was able to tell that they were fakes. He got a lot of flack for that after the war ended, and was barred from filmmaking in Japan for several years.

His company, Tsuburaya Productions has carried that fortitude for effects and quality storytelling with it throughout the decades.  Since 1966, their primary product has been the “Ultra Series” Franchise, Primarily focused in The titular Ultraman of the entry, and their adventures.

The franchise focuses on benevolent Giants from the M78 Nebula (though some originate from elsewhere as there’s actually an Ultra-multiverse) who act as troubleshooters for random giant monster calamities; bonding to specified hosts (or on occasion take human form themselves) to conserve their own powers while away from their own homeland; allowing the chosen humans to utilize their powers to defend their home and what’s precious to them.  The downside of the Ultra’s is that in planetary environments they can only use their immense powers for approximately 3 Minutes before they need to rest, as their powers are garnered from light energy given off by stars, who’s rays aren’t intense enough to sustain them in-atmosphere.

The currently running series, Ultraman R/B is actually really good, and has a lot to say on the subject of caustic fans who miss the point of the merits of a series due to only caring about the action/spectacle of a fight and adherence to Tropes, and not understanding what a hero may actually be fighting For.  While that might initially read poorly to some people as it attacking fandom (as a certain other current toku series does every week)--and that not helped by words from the Head of Tsuburaya from before R/B debuted--it’s more focused in social commentary refuting the Idea that the genre is message-less nonsense, and wants people to actually put thought into what being a true “Ally of Justice” means; Doing the right thing.  Links to 3 Relevant twitter threads discussing this: 1.  2.  3. For the interested, R/B is currently being fansubbed by the group Color timer, as Tsuburaya has not had luck in getting it officially distributed as of yet.  Crunchyroll, who’d previously been getting the import library, has recently begun dropping Ultra series left-and-right in favor of other licenses, with the only ones remaining being ones they originally subbed. If you’d like some older Recommendations, Ultraseven (available from Shout Factory) is considered the best overall series, And has multiple sequels with the adventures of Seven’s Son Zero (trying to list all of Ultraman Zero’s appearances is ridiculous, as he’s mainly been the star of a long collection of movie’s), and then 2017′s Ultraman Geed (available on Crunchyroll, the movie for the series also from MCS fansubs), focused in turn on the Son/Clone of Zero’s Greatest enemy Ultraman Belial which then had Zero act as a secondary protagonist part of that series’ Ensemble. Tsuburaya however has been having something of a hard time the last several years.  The chinese Company Chaiyo, using falsified documents, laid claim to many of the showa-era (pre-1989) ultraman series and all Distribution rights to All of The related content of the franchise from Tsuburaya, preventing them from making money internationally while Chaiyo flexed those rights themselves to make them an immense sum of money.  The litigation and lawsuits basically bankrupted the company as Chaiyo argued under the technicality of having a proper authentication of their document from one of Tsuburaya’s sons that the agreement was a foregone conclusion; requiring Tsuburaya productions have an in-part buyout from company Namco Bandai to continue running.

This is why recent ultra Series (Ginga, Victory, X, Orb, Geed, R/B), have ended up being awash with collectibles; Bandai over-merchandises every thing they can get their hands on.  Previously the merch licenses resided with Takara/Tomy (transformers, zoids), and were a LOT more restrained as while Tsuburaya Pro Knew merchandising was important to the longevity of a series as an additional revenue source...the storytelling of the series would come first.  with series before this, most of the toyetic items came in the form of scale models and figures of both the title ultra’s, some roleplay items, and an assortment of assist vehicles and jets the normie humans would use in battle to support the main protagonist against the situations of the week. That monetary support however helped, and in a newer lawsuit Tsuburaya won through and prevented Chaiyo from screwing with the company again...however, the legal distribution rights for their own assets are still in legal limbo, as the latest case only allowed them to claim Dominance over north-American distribution.  which while still a significant market is still small in comparison to the rest of the world; especially with the stigma these live-actions show have in the US. to the non-converted. Really, I think that’s part of the reason why they ended up pushing a new entry of a series that Chaiyo had NOT previously been able to touch at all.

Denkou Choujin (Lightning superman, though the title is localized as Hyper Agent) Gridman was a 39-episode Tokusatsu series that ran in 1993, and more recently was imported and subtitled to completion by the US Premium channel TOKU.

It followed the adventures of Naoto Sho and his friends Yuka and Ippei as they, after encountering the titular Gridman inside of a video game they’d been developing on a kitbash computer (Junk), must assist him in defending the computer realm from the attacks of Khan Digifer (subtitles writing it as ‘Digipher’).

Yes, we know he looks like the shredder from TMNT. Both Gridman and Khan originate from the “Hyper world”, a realm comparable to cyberspace where all entities exist as living data (*cough*Digimon*Cough*), and thus can manipulate less complex data to their own ends.  With Khan’s goal being the destruction/conquest of the computer world, which would allow him to transcend digital limitations and begin his conquest of the real world, ala Code Lyoko XANA means of devastating anything electrically powered which could lead to bad ends for those involved (like, say, screwing with a nuclear power plants regulation systems).

PLOT.  POINT.

Khan’s efforts are Assisted by Takeshi Todo, A classmate of Naoto and Co who is an introverted social outcast and Victim of bullying; though Khan’s manipulations have turned him into a selfish, petty man.  Khan uses him to create the series’ monsters-of-the-week by Takeshi programming them into a homebrew game similar to the one Naoto found Gridman in, with Khan’s incentive for doing so being to allow Takeshi some catharsis from the awful things that have happened to him in his life, oblivious/not caring towards the entities deeper machinations as making homebrew monsters in his game was how he’d previously endeavored to vent his frustrations in a healthy manner...that Khan has just taken to the opposite extreme.  Though the show makes clear that Takeshi is fully an Indoctrinated thrall of Khan’s power to even allow him those indulgences so he can’t see the outstretched carrot is naught but a Stick.

To Fight Khan’s attacks, Naoto uses the transformation trinket the “Accessor” brace to Digitize himself and fuse with Gridman, With the transformation cry “ACCESS FLASH!” allowing his body to be turned to data and fuse with Gridman to upgrade his capabilities.  Yuka and Ippei likewise assisting them with the programming and transmission of weapons and vehicles/robots that add additional arsenal to Gridman’s counterattacks.

And unlike Previous tsuburaya productions, Gridman was the first to have these assist robots...actually be able to combine with the core hero.

Now, you 90′s kids in the audience might be thinking, “Hey, this all looks familiar” And you’re right.  Because the series got imported in 1994.

In response to the rise of Power Rangers Adapting the Japanese super sentai series, there was in turn an attempt to make bank on...basically doing the same thing.

Saban made SEVERAL adaptations of other tokusatsu series from toei’s library; Making VR Troopers and Beetleborgs from Toei’s “Metal heroes’ franchise”, and Saban’s masked rider from the Kamen Rider series “Black RX”.  They did not do as well as Power Rangers, primarily because they repeated many of the same mistakes MMPR made but grew out of, and lacked quality storytelling to really keep people invested. While VR Troopers and Beetleborgs To this Day have their merits and defenders...well, the only thing Worse than Saban’s Masked Rider that Saban has made, is Power Rangers (Super)Megaforce...Though some argue That Samurai, Dino Charge and Ninja Steel are very close as well. But THAT is where We Find DIC in all this.

DIC entertainment Was a Company active in the late 80′s, 90′s and 2000′s most known now-a-days for being the original distributors for Sailor moon and it’s awful original Dub, and producers for Inspector Gadget, The Real Ghostbusters,  the 90′s Sonic Cartoons, the 90′s Carmen Sandiago series, and Alienators: Evolution Continues. Those were their “good” Productions, most of the rest of their library was schlock and terrible both at the time and looked back on in hindsight.

Stargate fans do Not talk about Stargate Infinity.

But in the Power Rangers craze, DIC made two contributions to this in an attempt to cash in on the Hype. The first...is the infamously awful tattooed Teenage alien Fighters from Beverly Hills.

A Transparent ripoff if there ever was one, while many of the PR-clones of the era are accused of being ripoffs, ALL of them with exception with this show ultimately did their own things.  TTAFfBH though?  No.  On every level it’s an awful, obvious knockoff, and only True Power Rangers Ripoff. Not-so for the series we (in the round-about way I’ve taken) should actually be discussing:

Yeah...Ironically, that name was decided on to avoid hedging in on Power Ranger’s naming conventions, SSSS was originally going to be imported as PowerBoy. No, seriously.  it ended up doing the opposite, but the intention was to have no relation.

The series...actually did a lot of things right.  Co-Produced with Tsuburaya, SSSS was pretty much a direct adaptation, with the plots of the week being adjusted to an Americanized setting. culture and subplots...just with the standard campiness expected of a DIC production...and even less of a budget than Power Rangers at the time had.

A Teenage basement band calling themselves Team Samurai (though why they called themselves that escapes me, I’ve yet to get the show on DVD so am working on memories from 1994/1995 and clips on youtube), end up involved in stopping that attacks of cyberspace monsters after their lead guitarist Sam Collins (Played by Matthew Lawrence, later the sidekick to Will Friedle when he would join the cast of Boy Meets World) somehow gets zapped into his computer and endowed with the powers of Gridman’s counterpart Servo, who then take up the duty of stopping the machinations of the Escaped military AI program KiloKahn (voiced by the ever-awesome Tim Curry.  Seriously) and his Human servant Malcom Frink (basically just takeshi’s character again) as their various attacks upon any devices connected to electricity can end-up having real-world consequences...Just as they did in the original gridman series. Astoundingly, SSSS ran Longer than Gridman did, totaling in at 53 episodes; padded out with creative re-cutting of battle-footage alongside getting some test footage for a Gridman sequel that...unfortunately never got made.  It was rumored that had SSSS done better a full sequel Starring a character named Gridman Sigma would’ve been greenlit to provide more footage and story for adaptation...but sadly by 1995 and the show’s end, much of the PR Ameri-toku craze had ended, and Gridman/SSSS became a backburner to history. ...at least, until 2015

Co-Produced by Studio Trigger,  Denkou Choujin Gridman: boys invent great hero was an animated short for the japan Animator expo.  taking place 22 years after the original series (and the opening several minutes acting as a recap of it), Former villain Takeshi Todo seeks his own redemption for his past actions when Khan (or potentially a successor) re-emerges with more power; Takeshi taking the form of the blue-bodied Gridman Sigma to engage in battle with Digital kaiju that now appear to be manifesting within the real world with intentions to rewrite reality. Again, PLOT POINT. ...which thus leaves us with 2018′s recently released SSSS Gridman.

High school Freshman Yuta Hibiki awakens one Day Sans his memories, and begins to see illusions of Giant monsters in the skyline.  Finding Gridman within a Junk computer at his friend Rikka’s Home, he sets out to uncover the mystery of his lost memories, why these monsters are appearing, and what it means for his world as the kaiju begin emerging into the real world, forcing him to fight in the real world as the new Gridman. The series is written by Keiichi Hasegawa, who over the years has written more content for  Tsuburaya than any other person; Writing on Utlraman Tiga, Dyna, Gaia, Cosmos, Nexus, Mebius, Ultraseven X, and Most of the Ultraman zero content. He has also worked on Kamen Rider’s W, Fourze and Drive, The Big O, and Zoids Chaotic Century and new Century Zero. the series is being directed by Akira amemiya, previous on the series inferno Cop Already, if you’re aware of the backstory of Gridman, a few things pop out at you.  First off:

The Kaiju apperaing as phantoms before they fully emerging intro reality?  While also echoing enemies in Digimon and Rockman.exe, This is the same thing that was showcased in the ‘boys invent great hero’ short and was the endgame the heroes were trying to stop in the original series.  Thus, the same inference: Khan’s successor--

 --(called  Alexis・Kerib) has succeeded in transcending the limitations of digital existence and now is seeking to conquer and Destroy the real world.

Kerib has set himself up as a benevolent ‘genie’ to the social outcast and kaiju Fangirl Akane Shinjo, and is then proceeding to do the same thing Khan himself did with Takeshi; use her and her social issues to create his minions and monsters, realize them in the real world and devastate it while incidentally dealing with her real-life antagonists. This all conveyed through Studio trigger’s excellent visual storytelling, when Akane heads home to find it empty, and her room’s floor populated with an insane amount of bagged garbage; something no-one with actual parents in their lives would let happen.  A pseudo-social outcast with no-one to turn to; no parents in their lives to give nurture and comfort, seeking companionship through the internet as a source for what can’t be found in real-life so they can be happy, only to be manipulated by a predator for the vulnerable?

All we’re missing is a marred-up desk and suicidal thoughts to make her a Yandere version of Chigusa “Atoli” Kusaka from .hack//G.U.  Still time to do that, too. I honestly feel like there’s a Lot more to say on this character and the nuances to her portrayal thus-far that makes her character and actions work in a far better light than those who endlessly try to excuse other utterly-irredeemable people who bear similarities in their backstory.  it’s clear she’s just lashing out and kerib--like Khan--creating an environment and unhinged mental state where she thinks any slight can be wished out of existence to make her empty life better.  And people lashing out?  They can be reasoned with, talked down and reformed.  Not-so with those who would, with clear thought turn others into victims and steal from them their own lives; those who are truly abusive in their conduct towards others for petty reasons or only received retaliation in response to their own awful conduct.  And yet the reverse is often shown to be true; the irredeemable given the chances they’d wasted before and the consequences of their actions ignored or handwaved to not be applicable, while people like Akane and Takeshi are left in the dark to suffer and be punished to start the cycle anew. However...this time there’s a twist to the kaiju attacks.

The people who died in the kaiju attacks...Die Retroactively.  Whatever Kerib is doing, it allows him and Akane to in limited way rewrite reality.  in the First/Second Episode, it’s revealed that The volleyball team at Hibiki’s high school were killed in the first attack, but it was noted when Hibiki and Rikka went to school the next day that not only was the school undamaged from the previous night’s attack, no-one remembered the girls that were on the team, or a team for the sport even existing. The best way I can describe the phenomena, since Kerib is appearing to manipulate the world as if it were one gigantic computer, is The kaiju metaphorically clicked on the folder containing all information on the volleyball team, and dragged it to the recycling bin; deleting their existence as the team, and killing off the girls part of it at the point the team would’ve been formed.

And even as hibiki is the newest person to take on the identity of Gridman--

--The battles at best are ones that will only prevent more people from Dying. As we’re only two episodes into the series right now, it’s unknown if any other bystanders caught in the crossfire are also being erased, or if it’s only focused on the targets Akane points out.  We just don’t know at this point. What we do know is this series is not supposed to have a direct connection to the original, but because so much of SSSS Gridman is based upon the worst case scenario from the original, that could mean anything at this point; even the posibility that reality itself has been rewritten and is the cause of hibiki’s amnesia.

As a Studio trigger anime series though, there are some things that fans have been pointing out. First off, the names of the volleyball team victims are an amusing collection of homages: Tonkawa  Sakiru > Tonka and Cy-kill  Toiko  > ToyCo  Kena-chan >  Kenner Doi Hako  > Toybox (Hako means box) Takara Nana > TAKARA and Seven (Nana means seven)  Cy-Kill was a Gobot from Tonka’s gobots series that was absorbed by Takara and transformers respectively.  ToyCo is a toys and collectibles retailer, as Was Toybox.  Kenner/Playmates was the US toy liscenser for SSSS toyline in the 90′s, and Takara...well, is Takara. the animation of course, is full-on Expected studio Trigger gar in it’s homages as well

Feel the Obari Pose! Expect the Obari Pose! Love the Obari Pose! “you know, when they do that, it makes it look as if they have a giant Di-” IGNORE THE OBARI POSE!   

but the well goes far deeper, my friends.

This is SSSSGridman’s character designer.  Just...look at that desk.  I spot 5 power ranger/super sentai mechs (Kyoryujin/DC megazord hidden on the top right), gaogaigar, The box for Brave exkaiser, Gurren Lagann, a 3rd-party Optimus Primal, and Shattered Glass Megatron. that last one is kind of important, as the director, Akira amemiya, is a Huge fan of shattered glass transformers.

Shattered glass, for those not in the know, is basically the transformers mirror universe originally created for the transformers convention botcon.  it’s a Universe where the autobots are the bad guys and Decepticons the good guys. For more info, I will leave a link to Chris McFeely’s transformers: the basics video on the subject. Watch him, it’s good stuff. Now why is that relevant? Every character in this show is based on a transformers design or color-scheme.  Most Significantly those from shattered glass. Akane?  Shattered glass Optimus Prime

Hibiki, Rikka, and Sho (who’s knowledgable on kaiju and Ultra series tropes) are cliffjumper (Classics-verse autobot who jumped into shatted glass), SG Sideswipe, and SG megatron.

The autobot Matrix

SG Starscream and Soundwave/ravage.

aaand just a few more for you all.

These four are based on the movie-verse Dinobots, and are gridman’s support programs turned into human beings.  the one on the top left whose name is Samurai Calibur (yes seriously) turns into Gridman’s sword the Gridman calibur.  The other three turn into the support mechs showcased below. oh, and for the checkback?   Sakiru Tonkawa from the volleyball team:

But it doesn’t end there.

The jet booster and drill cannon Combinations:

yes, seriously. The heavy arms configuration as well is a common practice seen with partial-combiner robo’s as well, particularly with those lacking certain combination limbs, particularly those part of the scramble city play gimmick these robot configurations are also homage-ing with the limbs and legs being swap-able.  And as all the support arms are based on Dinobots:

“Me grimlock have Anchor arms:  now am Jerk and everybody loves me!”

So yeah, to wrap things up, SSSS Gridman is Tsuburaya’s revival of a 90′s gem in an era where a lot of similarly-themed series exist and have done what it has since this series ( Digimon, .hack, Rockman.exe, Code Lyoko just to name a few), but is bringing it back with a fresh transformers-toned coat of paint for a new generation and original storytelling based on the worst-case scenario of the original series, and thus-far it is absolutely glorious, and I hope is able to follow through ‘cause I just generally love series in this little subgenre.

And I will leave you with 3 things:  First and second, The Anime’s opening mashed up with Gridman and SSSS openings (link and Link) and lastly an Image of hibiki’s English VA roleplaying with the original series’ toy sword while recording his voiceover:

SSSS Gridman is available from Funimation.

[thesevenseraphs]

Bungie Weekly Update - 8/30/18

This week at Bungie, we’re on final approach. This is the last blog update before-saken, and we’ve just served up a menagerie of content to get you prepared. If you’ve been looking to avoid spoilers, don’t click “play” on any of the following videos. If you’re chomping at the bit for info, this was cooked up just for you:

The hunt is about to begin, but we also have a long road ahead of this year. To share our goals for Forsaken and what waits beyond launch, we invited developers from the team to go on the record. Check out the new ViDoc to see what we have planned for the second year of Destiny 2:

If you’re looking for a quick reference on what’s covered in the ViDoc, we’ve also made a roadmap with details on Forsaken, Annual Pass content, and the free Seasons updates.

Gambit Showdown & Trial

On September 1, every player of Destiny 2 will be invited to try Gambit before the launch of Forsaken. For 24 hours, fireteams will bank motes in a race to beat their opponents and burn down a Primeval.

Tomorrow, before the games begin for everyone, we’re inviting some special guests into our studio to show how it’s done!

Gambit Showdown

www.twitch.tv/bungie

Friday 8/31, 1 PM PDT

The following day, all are invited to join the fun. This is the final stop before launch, and we'll be out there in the wild with you. If you happen to catch a Bungie employee on the opposite team, show 'em your favorite emote.

Gambit Trial

All platforms

Saturday 9/1, 10 AM PDT - Sunday 9/2, 10 AM PDT

We're also planning to place a few bounties during the Gambit Trial event. If you want a chance to earn the " Sign of Mutual Combat " emblem, stay tuned to @Bungie for future announcements.

As always,

DEATH HEALS PRIMEVAL.

Penny Arcade Expo

Still hungry for a bit more Gambit before September 4? Stop by and see us at PAX 2018 in Seattle! With the convention center in our back yard, we’ll be here all weekend to host Gambit matches, hang out at signing tables, and offer some sweet Destiny gear for purchase from the Bungie store.

Location: Booth 229, on the fourth floor.

Play Gambit—Earn an Emblem

We will have Gambit playable on the floor at PAX. Stop by the booth and try out the new competitive co-op game mode all weekend long. Anyone who plays will also receive a code for our event emblem.

Bungie Store—Snag some Swag

Available throughout the weekend, the Bungie Store will have the following merch (and more!) available for purchase.

Signing Tables—Meet the Devs

We’ve rounded up a few developers from various teams who’ve brought Destiny

and Destiny 2 to life! If you’d like to shake hands and snag an autograph, here’s the lineup.

Friday, 8/31

11 AM–12 PM: Narrative

3–4 PM: Crucible

4–5 PM: Gambit

Saturday, 9/1

11 AM–12 PM: Bungie Diversity Committee

1–2 PM: Art and UI

2–3 PM: Sandbox

3–4 PM: Gameplay and Investment

Cosplay Meetup—Meet the Guardians

Sunday 9/2, 1–2:30 PM

Each year, we’re humbled and amazed by the talents of our community. If you’ve ever wanted to see hand-crafted exotics or snap a photo with your favorite Destiny 2 character, chances are they’ll be there! For details on location, check out the Destiny Meetup at PAX West group.

Bringing the Hammer

The team has been hard at work the last few months improving their toolsets to watch over Destiny 2.  They have some important information to share on how we’re improving your search for Glory in the Competitive playlist.

Security Team: Throughout Season 3, we’ve been working on improvements to our systems that identify players who may be tampering with their connection to Crucible matches or breaking the Terms of Service for Destiny 2. We have some news to share, but first a point of clarification… We have received reports from players who have been using bungie.net or other third-party websites to attempt to identify wrongdoers. We want to clarify that our internal tools have much more detail, which players do not have access to. For example, a player who returns to orbit or switches their character will show as did not finish on a third-party website, while our internal tools have much more detail on the reason they left the match. This helps to ensure that we do not hand out restrictions when opponents are disconnecting due to temporary networking or ISP issues or opponents leaving of their own accord. Using this data—and working with the PvP team directly—we’ve recently updated our detection and analysis tools and re-checked the previous four months of matches from the Competitive playlist. 

Effective September 4, 2018, we will apply more restrictions and bans to player accounts that benefitted from opponent disconnects at a highly abnormal frequency throughout Season 3 with our improved detection methods. This will include “voluntary” disconnects when players are repeatedly matching against the same opponents.

We are also updating our Account Restrictions and Banning Policies to detail the potential forms of punishment.

Depending on the severity of infractions, players may receive Crucible restrictions and bans.

This will remove access to pinnacle Crucible rewards, such as Redrix’s Claymore, Redrix’s Broadsword, and Luna’s Howl, and any pinnacle Crucible rewards released in the future. 

For the most severe infractions, players may permanently lose access to all Destiny 2 activities, including PvE.

As we begin to apply this moderation, we will be crosschecking matches to ensure the proper levels of punishment are applied. We’ll continue to apply and revise our detections throughout Season 4 and beyond. 

If you believe you’ve encountered a player who is breaking the terms of service, please see Report Suspected Cheating on help.bungie.net. This page details all available forms of reporting to Bungie for the platform on which you play.

As a final note, thanks to everyone who plays Destiny 2 legitimately. We appreciate the time you invest in our game, and we’re working hard to ensure everyone has a good experience when rightly earning their rewards.

Pardon Our Dust

Since the Year 2 deployment on Tuesday, we’ve seen reports that matchmaking time in the Crucible may be taking longer than usual. While no deliberate changes to matchmaking were deployed in Update 2.0, we have been investigating this issue.

We are planning to deploy a fix that we hope will increase the speed of matchmaking queues. As our investigation continues, please stay tuned to @BungieHelp for updates on our progress.

Upon the launch of Forsaken, skill matching will work in the same manner it has in recent weeks (i.e., no skill-based matchmaking). In the near future, we will preview any planned improvements to matchmaking in Crucible Labs first, so we can tune that experience collaboratively. As always, our commitment remains to communicate all changes to the competitive ecosystem in advance right here on bungie.net.

Thanks for playing!

Download After Download

As we said last week, things are a little weird right now. Player Support has been on the front lines, troubleshooting issue reports and identifying workarounds for some of the oddities you might be seeing since the release of Update 2.0.0.

This is their report:

Destiny 2 Hotfix 2.0.0.1

On Tuesday, September 4, Destiny 2 will undergo maintenance to receive Update 2.0.0.1. The conclusion of this maintenance will mark the launch of Destiny 2: Forsaken, and this hotfix will be required to log in and play. For the Hotfix 2.0.0.1 deployment schedule, please see the times listed below. On Tuesday, September 4:

7:00 AM PDT: Players will no longer be able to log in to Destiny 2. Players leaving activities will be returned to the title screen. Hotfix 2.0.0.1 will begin rolling out across all platforms and regions.

7:30 AM PDT: Destiny 2 will be taken offline for maintenance, and all remaining players will be returned to the title screen.

7:30–10:00 AM PDT: Destiny 2 will remain offline for maintenance.

10:00 AM PDT: Destiny 2 maintenance is expected to conclude, and Destiny 2: Forsaken will become available to play on all platforms.

For Hotfix 2.0.0.1 patch notes on September 4, players should keep an eye on our Updates page or follow @Bungie on Twitter for live announcements.

Destiny 2 Update 2.0.0 Known Issues

Over the past few weeks, we have warned players that the weeklong transition between August 28 and September 4 may be a rocky one. In direct response to player reports on our #Help forum, we have listed below some of the known and emergent issues we’ve tracked since the launch of Update 2.0.0. Please be aware that not all of the issues below will be resolved in Hotfix 2.0.0.1.

We are aware of an issue impacting players’ ability to obtain specific loot from the Nightfall strike “Strange Terrain.” This issue should be resolved on September 4 with Update 2.0.0.1.

The XP bar is not showing XP gains for players at the level cap. This is a UI issue, and all players will continue to earn XP and Bright Engrams at their expected rates. This issue is expected to be resolved on September 4 with Hotfix 2.0.0.1.

We are currently investigating an issue that causes the precision multiplier for some weapons with explosive rounds to be incorrectly capped, making them deal less total damage than intended.

We are investigating reports of issues impacting sandbox gameplay, including Hand Cannon recoil on PC and aiming down sights not cancelling properly.

Some Year 2 Forsaken weapons and armor may drop prematurely from world loot sources. Items awarded to players early may see minor changes following Hotfix 2.0.0.1 and the launch of Destiny 2: Forsaken on September 4.

Some objectives that require Heroic strikes will not be achievable until Hotfix 2.0.0.1 on September 4.

Players who still have the “Spicy Ramen” quest will not be able to complete it because the ramen shop is no longer distributing expired coupons.

For the full list of known issues, as well as possible mitigation steps, players should see our Update 2.0.0 Known Issues list.

Gear Infusion and Level Requirements

Once Destiny 2: Forsaken is live on September 4, players may begin increasing their Power and character level beyond their Year 1 limits. As with all increases to player Power in Destiny 2, players should be aware that infusing gear with a requirement above their current character level will make the infusion recipient unavailable for use until the player levels up. For example:

A player logs in to Destiny 2: Forsaken on September 4 at character level 30

The player receives new gear with a level 31 character requirement

The player infuses the new gear into their favorite Year 1 gear

This Year 1 gear is no longer available for use, since it has adopted the level 31 character requirement from its infusion material

The player must then increase their character level to 31 to reequip this gear

Players should pay extra attention to the character level requirements on their gear as they climb to max level in Destiny 2: Forsaken. Mod Changes for AllAs a reminder, mod changes will take full effect on September 4 at the launch of Destiny 2: Forsaken. Listed below is the full experience that players will encounter once Hotfix 2.0.0.1 becomes available.

Year 1 weapons will not accept Year 2 weapon mods

Elemental attributes on Year 1 weapons will be locked, and you will no longer be able to change them

Some targeted Year 1 Power weapons have had their elemental attributes changed and locked for Year 2

Year 1 armor will accept Year 2 armor mods

Year 1 Gear will not receive randomized perks

All Year 1 mods will be deprecated at the launch of Destiny 2: Forsaken on September 4

Year 1 mods may safely be dismantled ahead of time in preparation for the Year 2 mod system

Solstice of Heroes T-Shirt Redemption

As of this past Tuesday, Solstice of Heroes and Moments of Triumph have concluded in Destiny 2. Players who achieved 250 Triumph Points or more and redeemed the Triumph Shirt reward in-game are eligible to generate their Solstice of Heroes T-shirt code on their Bungie.net profile until September 12 at 10 AM PDT.

Players who generate their code by this deadline have until September 30 at 11:59 PM PDT to redeem their code at checkout with their shirt order at the Bungie Store. At that time, all remaining T-shirt codes will become invalid, and players may no longer place new Solstice of Heroes T-shirt orders on the Bungie Store.

[wispyrainbow]

Info On Earth, Beach City, Steven, and His Friends and Family for Pink Entity AU

So in the previous post, I kinda went into details about the Entity and what it did to White and Yellow, what it tried to do to Blue, and what happened to the Pearls(well except Blue Pearl by mistake, but she does make it out with her Diamond, so she’s ok). I also gave the AU the name Pink Entity, sorta like a fusion name... Though it's pretty bland. Anyway, I decided to focus on Earth and what has relatively been going on after the bubble was launched to protect it and what life is like so far.

First is how Earth got bubbled. I kinda came up with an idea that somehow, Pink managed to launch a bubble(though its mostly to protect Blue from the Entity, since I this takes place before Pink got her colony... Though I’m not sure ^^;). The bubble surrounds the Earth for years, protecting it from any attacks the Entity may launch at it, though it is starting to get weak. Whenever it does, Pink makes attempts to launch more in order to keep it from falling apart, though the Entity is catching on, and is starting to try and lock Pink away further in her mind to keep her from doing so. The problem with this is how space might be explored without popping it so my best guess might be that the bubble might be expanded further to allow such things, enveloping others... Though that won’t work out well I think. But that’s the basic idea...

Next is Beach City. Things are, more or less, the same as in canon. Bill Dewey is still in office, though he is a bit different from his canon counterpart. He does care about Beach City and its inhabitants, constantly trying to find ways to fix whatever problems or complaints they have. However... He’s not really good at it, usually coming up with the solution, only to have it fall apart on him. He only manages to get out of it through the help of Nanefua(when she isn’t working at Fish Stew Pizza). She’s the brain of the operations, making sure Dewey doesn’t screw up or talk out of his ass etc. Without her(though he won’t admit it out loud), Bill would have fallen apart. There is also how Bill is as a father to Buck: he’s a mix of the embarrassing but well-meaning and the kinda absent/neglectful single father. He wants to spend as much time as he can with Buck, but unfortunately has a bad perception of space, often times nearly smothering Buck or revealing some embarrassing personal secret of his from a young age. He also ends up missing out on a lot of events considered important to Buck but tries to make up for it. In short, their relationship as father and son is pretty close to nearly being strained.

Next is Greg. Greg still dropped out of college in order to try and become a rockstar, though before he does, he runs away from home after an argument with his parents(which may have turned physically between his dad) and ends up running into his cousin Andy. Despite the two starting to share heated words at the beginning(Andy probably heard about it from his own parents), they both managed to cool down and Greg explained everything more clearly. Andy is, of course, unsure why Greg wishes to be a rockstar but decides to support him someway(he ends up doing so by agreeing to play some form of the drums). The two meet Marty(he’s less of an ass than in canon, but is still a jerk when he wants to be), who would become Greg’s manager, and despite Andy’s wariness towards him, Greg agrees to let him be on board on the promise of giving him 25% of the proceedings(it was originally 75% by Marty’s orders, but thanks to Andy’s “persuasion”, it was cut down). They start traveling, doing the usual tour(with Andy pretty much keeping his eye on Marty, and putting him in his place if he feels that the former is trying to pull wool over Greg’s eyes) and just like in the “Story for Steven”, they end up in Beach City. While there, Greg ends up meeting a left shoulder gem Quartz soldier and Holly Blue Agate(before she became the manager of the Zoo)who was scouting the area and happened to come across the concert. Once the concert was over, Greg and this Quartz(who we’ll call Army Quartz- she’s a sweetheart though a bit rash and adventurous) start talking and generally get to know each other, as do Andy and Holly(though theirs is a slow burn since Holly is a bit more reluctant around humans)Marty also meets Vidalia, though their relationship doesn’t end up as close as the other two(lets just say, mention Marty around her, Vidalia will instantly mention having violent thoughts of what she would do to him if she saw him again). Now, they have to get back on the road, which of course causes reluctance in both Greg and Andy, though they end up doing so by Marty’s insistence and the both of the female gems convincing them(they do promise to meet up again whenever they get the chance, which is usually when they take breaks from touring and end up relaxing at Beach City). During these, Greg goes on dates with Army Quartz while Andy tries to understand Holly a bit more and vice versa. Soon, she ends up getting pregnant right before the trio is slated to resume touring, which Greg didn’t know about until Holly came up with a baby Steven about 9 months after the last encounter between the two, which causes Greg to take responsibility and want to settle down in order to take care of the newborn(which Andy understood, though Marty was a bit pissed). Eventually, Marty agreed, but only till Steven reaches an age “where he doesn’t need to rely on his dad”(his words), which ended being about 14 years and when he starts high school. 

So, while Steven is attending high school, Marty is trying to get Greg and Marty back up to where they were before everything else, often times leaving Steven to be taken care of by Holly Blue, who ends up living with Vidalia, Yellowtail, Sour Cream, and Onion. Steven’s appearance ranges a bit differently from his canon appearance: his hair is similar to Greg’s in flashbacks(his is more in a ponytail) with several shades of his moms with highlights, he has heterochromia(left eye is like’s Gregs, right eye is a pale pink like his mom), and Army Quartz’s gem is located on his left shoulder. There is also his outfit(since the Crystal Gems were never formed, he doesn’t have anything with a star on it), rather it's just a black tank top version of one of his dad’s t-shirt merch(the Mr.Universe one that Rose got) with a cuffed sleeve olive green jacket, a pair of fingerless gloves, ripped, slightly dirty cuffed blue jeans and black and white loosely tied sneakers. His personality is the same as in the show, though he does end prone to getting into trouble a bit(whenever it's defending one of his friends or by other means) and is generally a bit more of a darer(always going on adventures with his friends or by himself) and ends up getting hurt but ok. 

His friends consist of Connie(more of a love interest), Peedee(who he met at the Fry Shack), and Jeff(the kid Connie accidentally hurt in “Mindful Education”, though, in this version, Jeff is just the new kid and ends up getting into hijinks with the others). They’re considered the outcasts by the other students and some of the teens in Beach City out of school, though it doesn’t bother them as much. They also go on some pretty crazy adventures(usually when Connie isn’t busy with other programs) into the woods or just around Beach City, with Steven also has a job working at The Big Donut alongside Lars and Sadie and sometimes a side job at the Beach City Funland(maybe distributing tokens or prizes). 

Steven may also begin having dreams about random gems still trapped on homeworld or maybe the diamonds(though I’ll elaborate on that a bit more in the future) and asking Holly if he can summon a weapon similar to his Auntie Holly. Alongside his friends, he may begin to start exploring whatever areas are around(ones containing gems who’ve run away from homeworld) using the warp pads(called interdimensional teleporters by Ronaldo). But as mentioned, more might be elaborated for later... As this is starting to get a bit too long^^;

Hopefully, I get to the gems who made it to Earth in the future post, and fix up whatever seems too much through you guys! :)

[bigyack-com]

How to Run a Business in 2020

In recent years, stars have lent their names to all kinds of sneaker collaborations. Puma had Rihanna. Reebok had Gigi Hadid. Adidas had Kanye West. Nike had … Jesus Christ?Not exactly. In October, a pair of “Jesus shoes” — customized Air Max 97s whose soles contained holy water from the River Jordan — appeared online for $1,425. They were designed by a start-up called MSCHF, without Nike’s blessing.The sneakers quickly sold out and began appearing on resale sites, going for as much as $4,000. The Christian Post wrote about them. Drake wore them. They were among the most Googled shoes of 2019.The only thing that didn’t happen, said Kevin Wiesner, 27, a creative director at MSCHF, was a public disavowal of the shoes by Nike or the Vatican. “That would’ve been rad,” he said.Now, in the MSCHF office in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, a pair stands like a trophy.MSCHF isn’t a sneaker company. It rarely even produces commercial goods, and its employees are reluctant to call it a company at all. They refer to MSCHF, which was founded in 2016, as a “brand,” “group” or “collective,” and their creations, which appear online every two weeks, as “drops.”Many of those drops are viral pranks: an app that recommends stocks to buy based on one’s astrological sign (which some observers took seriously), a service that sends pictures of A.I.-generated feet over text, a browser extension that helps users get away with watching Netflix at work.As Business Insider recently noted, the present and future profitability of these internet stunts is dubious. Yet, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, MSCHF has raised at least $11.5 million in outside investments since the fall of 2019.In the high-risk, maybe-reward world of venture capital, the group’s antics are well known. Nikita Singareddy, an investment analyst at RRE Ventures, compared MSCHF to Vine and Giphy. All three, she said, offer “lots of delight” and encourage content sharing.“Sometimes investors are a little too serious about monetizing something immediately,” Ms. Singareddy said. “With MSCHF, there’s faith that it’ll pay off. There’s an inherent virality and absurdness to all the projects that they’ve created, and it’s something people want to share and ask questions about.”For starters: What is it?

‘This Is How We Live’

The MSCHF office says as much about the company as any of its products.A giant white pentagram covers the entrance floor. On a visit in December, an inflatable severed swan’s head dangled from a ceiling beam, and a rubber chicken bong — a recent drop — sat on a coffee table, full of weed.“My mom thinks we make toys,” said Gabriel Whaley, 30, the chief executive.MSCHF has 10 employees, nine of whom are men. The company Twitter and Instagram pages are private, so most of its direct marketing takes place not on social media but through text messages from a mysterious phone number.Though the team used to run a marketing agency, working with brands like Casper in order to fund MSCHF projects, they stopped taking on clients last year. Now, they pretty much do whatever they want.“The cool thing that we have going for us is we set this precedent that we’re not tied to a category or vertical. We did the Jesus shoes and everyone knows us for that, and then we shut it down,” Mr. Whaley said. “We will never do it again. People are like, ‘Wait, why wouldn’t you double down on that, you would have made so much money!’ But that’s not why we’re here.”The point, he said, is to produce social commentary; the “story” the sneakers told was more important than turning a profit. “There are several youth pastors that have bought a pair, and even more who are asking, like, ‘I love sneakers, and I love God. I would love a pair of these,’ and that wasn’t the point,” Mr. Whaley said. “The Jesus shoes were a platform to broach the idea while also making fun of it: that everybody’s just doing a collaboration now.”In order to prepare each drop — be it an object, an app or a website — MSCHF’s employees log long hours. Most mornings, Mr. Whaley gets to the office around 7; the rest of the team arrives by 10. They often stay late into the evenings, conducting brainstorms, perfecting lines of code, shooting live-streams or assembling prototypes. Weekends, Mr. Whaley said, aren’t really a thing.“It’s not just a full-time job,” he said. “This is how we live. The distinction between your work and normal life doesn’t really exist here, and it’s just because this is what we were all doing whether we were getting paid or not in our former lives. So nothing has really changed, except we have more power as a unit than we did as individuals.”Though Mr. Whaley eschews corporate titles, functional groups exist within MSCHF: idea generation, production, distribution and outreach. In their past lives, most of the staffers were developers and designers, some with art backgrounds, working at their own firms and for companies like Twitter and BuzzFeed. The oldest employee is 32, and the youngest is 22.Some C.E.O.s of Fortune 500 companies have tried to mentor Mr. Whaley and “shoehorn” MSCHF into a traditional business, he said. They insist MSCHF is building a brand, that it needs a logo, a mission, a go-to product that people recognize.But MSCHF doesn’t have a flagship product, or market its releases traditionally. “It just happens that anything we make tends to spread purely because people end up talking about it and sharing it with their friends,” Mr. Whaley said.That’s part of the appeal for V.C. firms. With software companies, for example, there are “very clear metrics and paths to monetization that are tried and true,” Ms. Singareddy said. For MSCHF, that path is less obvious.“Some of the best investments, even early on it wasn’t clear what the result would be, but you’re making an investment in the team,” she said. “That’s what makes a company like MSCHF so exciting. Venture is about taking reasoned risk — it’s a true venture capital opportunity.”

Banksy for the Internet

Mr. Whaley talks a lot about what MSCHF is and who the people who work there are — and aren’t. Running ads on subways, or trying to build a social media following, or landing a spot on the Forbes “30 Under 30” list isn’t who they are. He cringes at the word “merch.” (“The day we sell hoodies is the day I shut this down.”)To observers, critics and followers, the company’s portfolio may amount to a very successful string of viral marketing campaigns, a series of jokes or something like art.“I don’t see anybody doing exactly what MSCHF is doing,” said Frank Denbow, a technology consultant who works with start-ups. “Everybody is able to get a one-off campaign that works, but to consistently find ways to create content that really sticks with people is different. It reminds me of Banksy and his ability to get a rise out of people.”On Twitter and Reddit, users trade theories and tips about MSCHF’s more cryptic offerings, such as its most recent, password-protected drop, Zuckwatch — a website that looks like Facebook and appears to be commentary on data privacy.Among these ardent fans, the drops are treated as trailheads, or entry points, setting off mad, winding dashes in search of cracking the code. Other followers, less devoted, may only know MSCHF for its Jesus shoes, which Mr. Wiesner said have been knocked off by sellers around the world. He is happy about it. “If we can make things that people run away with, that’s absolutely the dream,” he said. “Most of what we make is us personally running away with stuff.”Ahead of the presidential election, MSCHF’s employees plan to take on more political projects. (A drop in November, involving a shell restaurant, enabled users to mask political donations as work expenses; it was promptly shut down.) The company also hopes to expand beyond apps and objects to experiences and physical spaces.“Everything is just, ‘How do we kind of make fun of what we’re observing?’” Mr. Whaley said. “Then we have as much fun with it as possible and see what happens.” Read the full article

[biofunmy]

How to Run a Business in 2020

In recent years, stars have lent their names to all kinds of sneaker collaborations. Puma had Rihanna. Reebok had Gigi Hadid. Adidas had Kanye West. Nike had … Jesus Christ?

Not exactly. In October, a pair of “Jesus shoes” — customized Air Max 97s whose soles contained holy water from the River Jordan — appeared online for $1,425. They were designed by a start-up called MSCHF, without Nike’s blessing.

The sneakers quickly sold out and began appearing on resale sites, going for as much as $4,000. The Christian Post wrote about them. Drake wore them. They were among the most Googled shoes of 2019.

The only thing that didn’t happen, said Kevin Wiesner, 27, a creative director at MSCHF, was a public disavowal of the shoes by Nike or the Vatican. “That would’ve been rad,” he said.

Now, in the MSCHF office in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, a pair stands like a trophy.

MSCHF isn’t a sneaker company. It rarely even produces commercial goods, and its employees are reluctant to call it a company at all. They refer to MSCHF, which was founded in 2016, as a “brand,” “group” or “collective,” and their creations, which appear online every two weeks, as “drops.”

Many of those drops are viral pranks: an app that recommends stocks to buy based on one’s astrological sign (which some observers took seriously), a service that sends pictures of A.I.-generated feet over text, a browser extension that helps users get away with watching Netflix at work.

As Business Insider recently noted, the present and future profitability of these internet stunts is dubious. Yet, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, MSCHF has raised at least $11.5 million in outside investments since the fall of 2019.

In the high-risk, maybe-reward world of venture capital, the group’s antics are well known. Nikita Singareddy, an investment analyst at RRE Ventures, compared MSCHF to Vine and Giphy. All three, she said, offer “lots of delight” and encourage content sharing.

“Sometimes investors are a little too serious about monetizing something immediately,” Ms. Singareddy said. “With MSCHF, there’s faith that it’ll pay off. There’s an inherent virality and absurdness to all the projects that they’ve created, and it’s something people want to share and ask questions about.”

For starters: What is it?

‘This Is How We Live’

The MSCHF office says as much about the company as any of its products.

A giant white pentagram covers the entrance floor. On a visit in December, an inflatable severed swan’s head dangled from a ceiling beam, and a rubber chicken bong — a recent drop — sat on a coffee table, full of weed.

“My mom thinks we make toys,” said Gabriel Whaley, 30, the chief executive.

MSCHF has 10 employees, nine of whom are men. The company Twitter and Instagram pages are private, so most of its direct marketing takes place not on social media but through text messages from a mysterious phone number.

Though the team used to run a marketing agency, working with brands like Casper in order to fund MSCHF projects, they stopped taking on clients last year. Now, they pretty much do whatever they want.

“The cool thing that we have going for us is we set this precedent that we’re not tied to a category or vertical. We did the Jesus shoes and everyone knows us for that, and then we shut it down,” Mr. Whaley said. “We will never do it again. People are like, ‘Wait, why wouldn’t you double down on that, you would have made so much money!’ But that’s not why we’re here.”

The point, he said, is to produce social commentary; the “story” the sneakers told was more important than turning a profit. “There are several youth pastors that have bought a pair, and even more who are asking, like, ‘I love sneakers, and I love God. I would love a pair of these,’ and that wasn’t the point,” Mr. Whaley said. “The Jesus shoes were a platform to broach the idea while also making fun of it: that everybody’s just doing a collaboration now.”

In order to prepare each drop — be it an object, an app or a website — MSCHF’s employees log long hours. Most mornings, Mr. Whaley gets to the office around 7; the rest of the team arrives by 10. They often stay late into the evenings, conducting brainstorms, perfecting lines of code, shooting live-streams or assembling prototypes. Weekends, Mr. Whaley said, aren’t really a thing.

“It’s not just a full-time job,” he said. “This is how we live. The distinction between your work and normal life doesn’t really exist here, and it’s just because this is what we were all doing whether we were getting paid or not in our former lives. So nothing has really changed, except we have more power as a unit than we did as individuals.”

Though Mr. Whaley eschews corporate titles, functional groups exist within MSCHF: idea generation, production, distribution and outreach. In their past lives, most of the staffers were developers and designers, some with art backgrounds, working at their own firms and for companies like Twitter and BuzzFeed. The oldest employee is 32, and the youngest is 22.

Some C.E.O.s of Fortune 500 companies have tried to mentor Mr. Whaley and “shoehorn” MSCHF into a traditional business, he said. They insist MSCHF is building a brand, that it needs a logo, a mission, a go-to product that people recognize.

But MSCHF doesn’t have a flagship product, or market its releases traditionally. “It just happens that anything we make tends to spread purely because people end up talking about it and sharing it with their friends,” Mr. Whaley said.

That’s part of the appeal for V.C. firms. With software companies, for example, there are “very clear metrics and paths to monetization that are tried and true,” Ms. Singareddy said. For MSCHF, that path is less obvious.

“Some of the best investments, even early on it wasn’t clear what the result would be, but you’re making an investment in the team,” she said. “That’s what makes a company like MSCHF so exciting. Venture is about taking reasoned risk — it’s a true venture capital opportunity.”

Banksy for the Internet

Mr. Whaley talks a lot about what MSCHF is and who the people who work there are — and aren’t. Running ads on subways, or trying to build a social media following, or landing a spot on the Forbes “30 Under 30” list isn’t who they are. He cringes at the word “merch.” (“The day we sell hoodies is the day I shut this down.”)

To observers, critics and followers, the company’s portfolio may amount to a very successful string of viral marketing campaigns, a series of jokes or something like art.

“I don’t see anybody doing exactly what MSCHF is doing,” said Frank Denbow, a technology consultant who works with start-ups. “Everybody is able to get a one-off campaign that works, but to consistently find ways to create content that really sticks with people is different. It reminds me of Banksy and his ability to get a rise out of people.”

On Twitter and Reddit, users trade theories and tips about MSCHF’s more cryptic offerings, such as its most recent, password-protected drop, Zuckwatch — a website that looks like Facebook and appears to be commentary on data privacy.

Among these ardent fans, the drops are treated as trailheads, or entry points, setting off mad, winding dashes in search of cracking the code.

Other followers, less devoted, may only know MSCHF for its Jesus shoes, which Mr. Wiesner said have been knocked off by sellers around the world. He is happy about it. “If we can make things that people run away with, that’s absolutely the dream,” he said. “Most of what we make is us personally running away with stuff.”

Ahead of the presidential election, MSCHF’s employees plan to take on more political projects. (A drop in November, involving a shell restaurant, enabled users to mask political donations as work expenses; it was promptly shut down.) The company also hopes to expand beyond apps and objects to experiences and physical spaces.

“Everything is just, ‘How do we kind of make fun of what we’re observing?’” Mr. Whaley said. “Then we have as much fun with it as possible and see what happens.”

Sahred From Source link Fashion and Style

from WordPress http://bit.ly/3aVPYK7 via IFTTT

[mastcomm]

How to Run a Business in 2020

In recent years, stars have lent their names to all kinds of sneaker collaborations. Puma had Rihanna. Reebok had Gigi Hadid. Adidas had Kanye West. Nike had … Jesus Christ?

Not exactly. In October, a pair of “Jesus shoes” — customized Air Max 97s whose soles contained holy water from the River Jordan — appeared online for $1,425. They were designed by a start-up called MSCHF, without Nike’s blessing.

The sneakers quickly sold out and began appearing on resale sites, going for as much as $4,000. The Christian Post wrote about them. Drake wore them. They were among the most Googled shoes of 2019.

The only thing that didn’t happen, said Kevin Wiesner, 27, a creative director at MSCHF, was a public disavowal of the shoes by Nike or the Vatican. “That would’ve been rad,” he said.

Now, in the MSCHF office in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, a pair stands like a trophy.

MSCHF isn’t a sneaker company. It rarely even produces commercial goods, and its employees are reluctant to call it a company at all. They refer to MSCHF, which was founded in 2016, as a “brand,” “group” or “collective,” and their creations, which appear online every two weeks, as “drops.”

Many of those drops are viral pranks: an app that recommends stocks to buy based on one’s astrological sign (which some observers took seriously), a service that sends pictures of A.I.-generated feet over text, a browser extension that helps users get away with watching Netflix at work.

As Business Insider recently noted, the present and future profitability of these internet stunts is dubious. Yet, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, MSCHF has raised at least $11.5 million in outside investments since the fall of 2019.

In the high-risk, maybe-reward world of venture capital, the group’s antics are well known. Nikita Singareddy, an investment analyst at RRE Ventures, compared MSCHF to Vine and Giphy. All three, she said, offer “lots of delight” and encourage content sharing.

“Sometimes investors are a little too serious about monetizing something immediately,” Ms. Singareddy said. “With MSCHF, there’s faith that it’ll pay off. There’s an inherent virality and absurdness to all the projects that they’ve created, and it’s something people want to share and ask questions about.”

For starters: What is it?

‘This Is How We Live’

The MSCHF office says as much about the company as any of its products.

A giant white pentagram covers the entrance floor. On a visit in December, an inflatable severed swan’s head dangled from a ceiling beam, and a rubber chicken bong — a recent drop — sat on a coffee table, full of weed.

“My mom thinks we make toys,” said Gabriel Whaley, 30, the chief executive.

MSCHF has 10 employees, nine of whom are men. The company Twitter and Instagram pages are private, so most of its direct marketing takes place not on social media but through text messages from a mysterious phone number.

Though the team used to run a marketing agency, working with brands like Casper in order to fund MSCHF projects, they stopped taking on clients last year. Now, they pretty much do whatever they want.

“The cool thing that we have going for us is we set this precedent that we’re not tied to a category or vertical. We did the Jesus shoes and everyone knows us for that, and then we shut it down,” Mr. Whaley said. “We will never do it again. People are like, ‘Wait, why wouldn’t you double down on that, you would have made so much money!’ But that’s not why we’re here.”

The point, he said, is to produce social commentary; the “story” the sneakers told was more important than turning a profit. “There are several youth pastors that have bought a pair, and even more who are asking, like, ‘I love sneakers, and I love God. I would love a pair of these,’ and that wasn’t the point,” Mr. Whaley said. “The Jesus shoes were a platform to broach the idea while also making fun of it: that everybody’s just doing a collaboration now.”

In order to prepare each drop — be it an object, an app or a website — MSCHF’s employees log long hours. Most mornings, Mr. Whaley gets to the office around 7; the rest of the team arrives by 10. They often stay late into the evenings, conducting brainstorms, perfecting lines of code, shooting live-streams or assembling prototypes. Weekends, Mr. Whaley said, aren’t really a thing.

“It’s not just a full-time job,” he said. “This is how we live. The distinction between your work and normal life doesn’t really exist here, and it’s just because this is what we were all doing whether we were getting paid or not in our former lives. So nothing has really changed, except we have more power as a unit than we did as individuals.”

Though Mr. Whaley eschews corporate titles, functional groups exist within MSCHF: idea generation, production, distribution and outreach. In their past lives, most of the staffers were developers and designers, some with art backgrounds, working at their own firms and for companies like Twitter and BuzzFeed. The oldest employee is 32, and the youngest is 22.

Some C.E.O.s of Fortune 500 companies have tried to mentor Mr. Whaley and “shoehorn” MSCHF into a traditional business, he said. They insist MSCHF is building a brand, that it needs a logo, a mission, a go-to product that people recognize.

But MSCHF doesn’t have a flagship product, or market its releases traditionally. “It just happens that anything we make tends to spread purely because people end up talking about it and sharing it with their friends,” Mr. Whaley said.

That’s part of the appeal for V.C. firms. With software companies, for example, there are “very clear metrics and paths to monetization that are tried and true,” Ms. Singareddy said. For MSCHF, that path is less obvious.

“Some of the best investments, even early on it wasn’t clear what the result would be, but you’re making an investment in the team,” she said. “That’s what makes a company like MSCHF so exciting. Venture is about taking reasoned risk — it’s a true venture capital opportunity.”

Banksy for the Internet

Mr. Whaley talks a lot about what MSCHF is and who the people who work there are — and aren’t. Running ads on subways, or trying to build a social media following, or landing a spot on the Forbes “30 Under 30” list isn’t who they are. He cringes at the word “merch.” (“The day we sell hoodies is the day I shut this down.”)

To observers, critics and followers, the company’s portfolio may amount to a very successful string of viral marketing campaigns, a series of jokes or something like art.

“I don’t see anybody doing exactly what MSCHF is doing,” said Frank Denbow, a technology consultant who works with start-ups. “Everybody is able to get a one-off campaign that works, but to consistently find ways to create content that really sticks with people is different. It reminds me of Banksy and his ability to get a rise out of people.”

On Twitter and Reddit, users trade theories and tips about MSCHF’s more cryptic offerings, such as its most recent, password-protected drop, Zuckwatch — a website that looks like Facebook and appears to be commentary on data privacy.

Among these ardent fans, the drops are treated as trailheads, or entry points, setting off mad, winding dashes in search of cracking the code.

Other followers, less devoted, may only know MSCHF for its Jesus shoes, which Mr. Wiesner said have been knocked off by sellers around the world. He is happy about it. “If we can make things that people run away with, that’s absolutely the dream,” he said. “Most of what we make is us personally running away with stuff.”

Ahead of the presidential election, MSCHF’s employees plan to take on more political projects. (A drop in November, involving a shell restaurant, enabled users to mask political donations as work expenses; it was promptly shut down.) The company also hopes to expand beyond apps and objects to experiences and physical spaces.

“Everything is just, ‘How do we kind of make fun of what we’re observing?’” Mr. Whaley said. “Then we have as much fun with it as possible and see what happens.”

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/how-to-run-a-business-in-2020/

[porcupineinajacuzzi]

An Introduction to Pied Piper Inc.

Originally published February 16th, 2016

Earlier today, fans all over North America let out a collective squee of delight as it was revealed that Pied Piper Inc. has licensed the anime series Skip Beat! for DVD and Blu-ray. Who is this new magical, wish granting company though? Well, allow me to fill you in as earlier this week I had the chance to sit down with the president of the company, Ann Yamamoto, and ask her some questions about Pied Piper Inc. and their plans for the future.

- Pied Piper seemed to come out of nowhere. Earlier this decade the company ran a very successful Kickstarter and distributed the Time of Eve movie but now you’ve decided to venture into licensing anime yourselves. What was the decision making process behind this new direction?

The decision making process was very organic. When I launched the Time of EVE Kickstarter, I saw it as a small experiment. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be a 2-year journey involving music licensing, book publishing, and collaboration with fans around the world.

I came out with three crystal clear realizations.

First, the Kickstarter was the single most challenging and satisfying experience in my professional life. I knew with absolute certitude that I wanted to do anime crowdfunding again.

And, as the final rewards were shipping, I was over-the-top delighted to get messages from backers asking me to do another campaign.

Finally, I didn’t make a single cent. OK, I’ll just go out and say it. I lost money. Toward the end, I was paying my accountant, bookkeeper and outside vendors, but not myself. But, I also realized that the project had been my greatest teacher. Sure, a lot of these lessons were kind of jack-of-all-trades skills, like uploading 1,300 addresses into Amazon’s shipping interface or packaging ceramics for shipment to Russia. However, there were other more meta lessons. For example, being able to think through the full ramifications of a spec change, or knowing how to approach licensing for music, books, bonus videos and merchandise.

So, I decided to think of the financial loss as business school tuition. I decided, you know what, I’d be a fool not to use that knowledge toward something that I love to do, and toward solving problems that matter to anime fans.

- With so many companies in the United States already competing against each other, what makes your company stand out against the rest? Is there a particular niche that you’re aiming to fill?

Honestly, I don’t see myself in competition with other distributors/localization companies. First of all, I am a tiny operation! I don’t see myself going head-to-head for licenses. I find the gems that somehow have fallen through the cracks.

And, I think what I do is a little bit different from other distributors, with the exception of Robert Woodhead at AnimEigo. It is true that I’m after the same bundle of rights (merch, videogram). But, I am not primarily in the business of selling products. Other companies do that much better than I could ever do. My focus is offering the opportunity to join something like a barn raising. To me, the reward tiers are like tickets to an experience, and the goody bag at the end is the fruition of our collective effort. My dream is that fans come away from the experience somehow changed – such as having a greater appreciation of the title, or of anime as a whole.

Like other distributors, my roles are gaining the trust of the rightsholder and taking on the risk of getting the license. But then, after that, my role is to bring the backers into the localization process as much as possible. This might be quality checking of subtitles or voting on packaging designs, or sharing very detailed and transparent “behind-the-scenes” updates about the localization process.

I am not wedded to crowdfunding per say. Technology is creating new ways for people to collaborate, and I think ecommerce is playing catch up. I think we will see more models and platforms emerge in the next few years, and I want to be part of that.

- Over the last few years, anime fans have been turning to streaming sites more and more in order to get their fix. Does Pied Piper have any plans to join the streaming/simulcast market or will you be sticking to home video releases?

At this point, I don’t see how I can bring more value to streaming/simulcast.

In fact, streaming creates a new set of problems, namely backlog and overwhelming choice. I see myself as counter-programming, if that makes sense.

- Another thing fans have seen over the last few years is the market split sharply behind the high-end “boutique” distributors and the mass-market providers. Where does Pied Piper see itself fitting in the current landscape?

I am all about boutique, bespoke!

- In an ideal situation, how active would Pied Piper like to be this year? To put it another way, can fans potentially look forward to many license announcements over the next twelve months or is the company more interested in a slow and steady approach to potential licenses?

The biggest challenge to my business model is that it isn’t really scalable. I love the process of negotiating with backers and the Japan-side creators, and I’m not interested in handing that off. So we’ll see. Last year I wrote up a business plan that calls for 4 projects and 8,000 total backers each year. *If* this Skip Beat campaign is successful, I’ll have a war chest that I can use toward licensing new titles. And, I’ll have more credibility when I approach rightsholders.

- Let’s talk about Pied Piper’s first license announcement, Skip Beat. You’re making a lot of shojo fans in North America very happy by releasing it to home video for the first time ever. Is there anything in particular that made this series such an attractive title for your first license?

After I had the realization that I wanted to turn crowdfunding into a sustainable business, the first challenge was to get new titles. In an ideal world, Directions (producer of Time of EVE) or dir. Yoshiura would have the perfect crowdfunding project in the pipeline. But no, that would be too easy!

How to identify and evaluate unlicensed titles? I’d been having conversations with Time of EVE backers and talked with several of them about my predicament. Five of them joined me as Project Curators to scout out new titles, and so they sent me a stream of ideas. My next step was to contact the rightsholders. I got many, many rejections, which gave me the chance to refine my pitch. So I was in a much better position when I met with TV Tokyo. I saw “Skip Beat!” in their catalog, and my jaw dropped.

To be honest, it wasn’t my ideal title simply because 25 episodes increases the costs on all fronts – licensing, dub, authoring, and manufacturing. It is a huge risk. I was looking for a smaller-scale title. But, Kyoko is all about guts. I love the title, and decided to go for it.

The TV Tokyo licensing team was open to letting me use crowdfunding, and I am profoundly grateful that the production committee allowed me to license the title.

I’d like to also give more background into my decision making process for the “Skip Beat!” license. Sorry, this is going to be long…

Once I’ve decided that a title has potential for crowdfunding, the next step is to make an educated guess of the minimum support I can expect from the core fan base. I try to be as empirical as possible. In the case of Time of EVE, I knew 350 or so overseas fans had purchased Direction’s Blu-ray release of the ONA version at $55, so I felt like it was reasonable to expect that at least 300 fans outside of Japan would join an international crowdfunding campaign. So I didn’t want the goal to be much higher than $16,000. Then, I got vendor quotes for the bare minimum release with a tiny production run, and managed to whittle the budget down to $18,000. So that’s how I set the initial goal (which was met within the first 24 hours of the campaign!).

For “Skip Beat!,” I looked at viewer ratings on MyAnimeList, ANN and Crunchyroll, and compared those with the other crowdfunded projects to date. I felt like I could count on 3,000 fans in North America to join the campaign at an average of $70 per pledge (the Time of EVE average was $79) for a total of $210,000. I refuse to set the initial goal above this amount, as I feel that would be unfair to fans and to the title. So, before I licensed the title, I had to ask myself: Can I deliver a quality release with English dub within that budget?

The rational answer is, absolutely not. The dub itself could easily exceed that sum. So, I was stumped. Fate stepped in, however, and one of Pied PIper’s Project Curators introduced me to Mela Lee, an incredibly talented voiceover actress with producerial smarts and the crazy heart of a die-hard fan. She proposed that we could deliver a quality dub within the $210,000 total budget, and then set stretch goals to scale up the dub with backer support. She brought onboard a truly amazing production team with Cristina Vee, Jason Charles Miller and Alexander Burke. It still feels like a miracle to have their talent on board this passion project, and I’m constantly having to pinch myself!

With their participation, I had the confidence to go ahead with the licensing agreement. So, you can think of the five of us as the first group of backers to the project. We are bonded by our love of “Skip Beat!,” and I hope that comes through in the campaign.

- Is there anything in particular you’re looking for in potential future anime licenses?

It boils down to two factors. First, I am looking for unlicensed titles that have a special quality that inspires passion from fans. Each case is different. I ask myself how I feel about the title, consult with the Project Curators who are helping me, read reviews and look at metrics like MyAnimeList. Second, the rightsholder needs to be open to crowdfunding. They need to be willing to let me open up the localization process to backers.

That being said, I absolutely think my business model is going to evolve. Three years ago, even a year ago, I would never have imagined myself taking “Skip Beat!” to fans through crowdfunding. I will continue to experiment with new ideas as I go along. It goes without saying that some of these won’t work out. It is terrifying, and exhilarating!

- Are there any plans to hit any conventions in the United States this year in order to better introduce yourself to fans?

I would love that opportunity!

- If there were one thing that you wanted our readers to know about you, one single thing that stands out about all others, what would it be?

What an amazing and difficult question! This isn’t unique to me, at all, but I’ll write it anyway. I’d like readers to know that I am continually inspired by anime, and I feel like it is such a privilege to be part of this industry.

[ulyssessklein]

Why you should treat your band like a startup

Amazon. Google. CCR. Nirvana. Besides their overwhelming individual successes and influence, they all have something else in common: every single one of them started in a garage. Just like coders in a startup focus strictly on their core product, bands in their infancy tend to devote almost all of their time on music, and why wouldn’t they? Nobody wants to listen to bad music!

But you know what else they all have in common? They got their start in a garage but didn’t stay there. They became multibillion dollar industry leaders and sold out arenas. If you want to make a career in the music industry, you’ll have to tackle business issues with no less energy and creativity than you bring to the music.

He’s not a businessman; he’s a business, man.

Let’s face it, the business side of music isn’t always sexy; we’d all rather spend time with our favorite instrument than calculating the ROI of tours, profitability of different merch lines, and everything else. However, if you’re not paying attention, the expenses associated with your growth tactics can quickly strip away any revenues.

The solution to this is to treat your band just like that scrappy startup whose clearest measure of success is user acquisition cost, or how much you need to spend to win over each new customer.

Bands, of course, call these customers “fans” and the goal is to get as many of them at the lowest possible cost. To get out of garage mode, you’ll need to be curious yet stay laser focused: every penny your band spends — from music videos to new songs, guitar strings to gas — should contribute in some way to your goal of adding new fans.

Every band has different user acquisition tactics, but most will use some blend of these:

Releasing new music is absolutely necessary but the costs of studio time, generating album artwork, time spent writing, release fees, and advertising can really add up. Fortunately companies like CD Baby can help you through the whole process of releasing and selling your music.

Releasing visual content like music videos, vlogs, and livestreams helps build your brand and gives you a mass platform for engaging with all of your fans, but you’ll need to invest a lot of time and money in planning, filming, editing, and advertising it.

Playing live shows helps you connect more intimately with fans and grow your presence regionally, and ticket sales and merch are responsible for huge chunks of most bands’ income. However, a good tour requires lots of time to plan and significant financial investment for food, lodging, booking, promos, fuel, and auto maintenance or rental.

Calculating costs for fan acquisition

A startup would sum up their marketing expenses and divide them by the number of new customers they added to calculate their user acquisition cost.

Your band’s expenses are pretty straightforward to calculate: save receipts and invoices and be diligent to log them somewhere. The hardest part of the equation is counting your new fans, but you’ll first need to set goals and define what a new fan even is. To pull it off, you’ll need visibility into several different channels including social media likes and followers, digital stream count, album sales, live show attendance, and email list subscribers.

The good news is that it’s easy to track the effects when you release new music and video content online. Most social, streaming, and distribution platforms offer audience analytics tools to you for little or no charge; use them! For a more comprehensive view of how your business is advancing, you should also consider trying out a free tool like Next Big Sound.

The number of new fans gained from live shows can be trickier to pin down, but one great tactic is to encourage new fans to drop by the merch table and sign up for your mailing list. Offer an item like a sticker or a free song download to drive more of them to convert from passive listeners to active fans. You’ll be able to reap the obvious benefit of having a way to contact new fans for plugging your new single or tour, and — every bit as importantly — you’ll also have a concrete list of new users. At the end of the tour, divide the total cost of the tour by the count of new email addresses in your dataset.

There will be some trial and error to the inexact science of expanding your fan base, but you should always be in the cycle of trying something new, measuring its success, and learning from it.

If you’re ready to decrease your user acquisition costs, here are some practical, tried-and-true growth hacks you can try in order to stretch your band’s dollars the furthest:

Co-writing

Find another band or artist to collaborate with on a new song, then co-write and release it together. If you split the recording and advertising costs, the savings can really add up. More importantly, when both bands push the song to their fans, you’ll trade access to your fans for access to theirs, which increases the potential of your return.

Video content

Attention spans are low and content is king. Sharing content regularly is a great way to engage with your fans. You probably can’t release a new song every week or hit areas on tour more than once or twice a year, but you can post good content frequently, and it doesn’t have to cost a ton of money. Having professional music videos is great, but creating lots of low-budget video content can be even more effective.

Try releasing a “behind the music” for each track on your new album to give fans the inside scoop of the song and recording process. Livestream your acoustic sets. Post videos from the road. The more content you have, the more the audience will feel connected to you and the more willing they’ll be to dish out for your new record or show up when you visit their town. These users tend to have a higher lifetime value for your band and are also the most likely to share your content with their friends, helping you organically increase your following.

Playing live shows

When you’re traveling to new markets to reach new fans, make sure you’re actually playing for a crowd and not empty rooms. If you don’t yet have a significant number of fans in that new market, it’s critical to connect with bands who do. It doesn’t cost a thing to have them open a show in front of your fans in exchange for you playing in front of theirs.

Bands have been swapping shows like this as long as tours have been played, and for good reason: it’s by far the most cost-effective way to grow your live music fan base. Once you’ve played a market a few times and earned some fans of your own, you’ll be able to leverage that asset to get better offers from area venues and promoters.

Arranging a good show swap can be really time consuming, so consider trading shows inside of a big, international network like Flock (flocklive.com) in order to ensure you’re playing in front of people and not just chairs, even in those markets you haven’t played before.

So what are you waiting for? Start hacking your band’s growth now and graduate from the garage!

The post Why you should treat your band like a startup appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.